


They Were Kids That I Once Knew

by HereForIt



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Multi, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-09-22 03:24:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 30,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9580346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HereForIt/pseuds/HereForIt
Summary: Shiro and Allura run a business where they help gifted kids with no home, abusive or exploitative parents, or just those who have a request.





	1. What's your story?

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like Pidge really couldn't care less if they're referred to as a he or a she

-

The first kid was Keith. He was very quiet and silently watched everyone. He never really spoke to anyone and he never asked for anything from Allura or Shiro. He would just come in, sleep for a while, eat something, then just leave. At first it was once every other week but then it became more frequent. At this point it got to where he'd come almost every day. 

"I know we have a 'no asking questions' policy, but, shouldn't we at least try to talk to him?" Allura whispered to Shiro one day. They were both watching him from the office that sat in the back of the dormitory area. He was just leaning on the wall, watching some kids play a board game together. "Maybe he wants to play with them but he doesn't know how to ask?" 

"No." Shiro shook his head. "There's something else." 

"I'm going to ask him for his name." Allura stepped out of the office, causing Shiro to almost fall over. 

Shiro silently watched them interact for a few minutes until she came back. She looked upset. 

"He heard everything we said. Said his name before I even asked." She said. 

"So he can hear really well?" 

"Well, he said we talk loud." Allura sounded embarrassed. 

"Wait, he's leaving." Shiro watched as the boy glanced at them for a second before shaking his head and just leaving right out the door. "What did he say his name was?" 

"Keith." 

-

"So, my family, it's really big. Like, HUGE!" This new kid, Lance, was explaining his situation to Shiro. They were in his office, the door closed, and Lance just kept talking. "You got my mom, my aunts, my uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers, sisters-"

"Lance." Shiro said, trying to sound patient. 

"Yes?" 

"Please, get to the point. You know I'm not the one to vent to, that's Allura's job." 

"Well, yeah, Allura. She's really cute..." Lance trailed off, starting to blush. "I can't come to her, I have to seem tough and manly, you know?" 

"You know she's twenty one and you're sixteen." Shiro almost laughed. 

"Hey, age is just a number." Lance protested. "Anyway, my point is, I lost my family."

"What do you mean you lost them?" Shiro was interested, now. 

"I don't know. I don't remember. But, I just... I woke up somewhere, I didn't know any of these people! So I got out of there and I want to find my real family. I have a picture." Lance pulled a photo out of his pocket and placed it on his desk. Shiro observed it for a seconds. 

"Are you gifted?" Shiro asked. 

"Ha, no. Unless you count being devilishly handsome a gift." Lance smiled and Shiro could have sworn he saw them shine. 

"So you came to this place meant specifically for gifted kids-"

"Hey, honestly, I just skimmed over the sign. The request part is what really caught my interest." Lance said. 

"What about the people you were with, explain that to me more please."

"Okay, so, I was with my family. We were all packed up in my dad's van, about to go on the best road trip ever so I decided to take a nap to pass time. I wake up, there's some lady I've never seen before. She says I'm going to live with them from now on. Like, what? I was just on a road trip!" Lance explained. "My last name is McClain, in case you want to look it up. Maybe something will come up. I'm sure my family is looking for me. I doubt the other people are. I said I was going to spend the night at a friend's house and just walked out the door."

"To make sure I understand this, you went to sleep in a van and woke up... where, exactly?" 

"The details are a little fuzzy." Lance shifted in his seat. "I don't remember exactly. But it was white, like the walls were white, I remember that." 

"Lance, I hate to break this to you, but, there's the possibility that you might have been in an accident. Your family must not have-"

"No." Lance was pissed. "There is no way. I know they're okay. I can feel it." He stood up. "You said you help people, help me find them. I know they're okay."

"Did you check your old house?" Shiro sighed. He said this after what felt like five minutes of silence. 

"Well, duh. It was empty, though. Like nothing was in it. I guess they moved without me? Who knows." Lance shrugged. 

"Shiro," Allura suddenly came in. "Coran's here. He wants to speak with you." 

"Oh, hello." Lance said to her. "While Shiro is talking to him, why don't we get acquainted  with each other? I love the color blue and long walks on the beach. Your turn." He did the finger guns. 

"Yes, you talk to him, I will be right back." Shiro winked at Allura before leaving the room. She sighed. 

-

"Shiro, they're fighting!" Someone barged into Shiro's room one evening. He stood up and quickly went to where the source was and saw Keith was pinning Lance against a wall. 

"You shut up!" Keith yelled at him. 

"What's the matter, Keith? Don't like the fact that I actually know about your little secret." Lance spat at him. He gasped for air when Keith pressed on him harder. 

"I said shut up." Keith hissed.

"Y-You're going to break-" Lance coughed out but stopped mid sentence, he couldn't speak anymore. The pressure on him was too much. Some kids that were watching went silent. There was also a dent in the wall, now. 

"Keith!" Shiro ran up to them and pulled Keith off of him. 

"Let me go!" Keith shoved Shiro with some inhuman force and Shiro felt himself fly back against the wall. The kids were now screaming and running out the room. Lance was on the floor, coughing and gasping for air. 

"That's enough!" Suddenly Allura came in. She went up to Keith and before he could touch her, she touched his head and he went numb, collapsing on the floor. His eyes were wide, staring at the floor in horror. She went over to Lance and lifted her hands over him. "Good, nothing serious."  

"Are you an angel?" He asked her in a tired yet flirty tone. 

"I didn't mean to, to do this." Keith suddenly stood up quickly and looked at his hands in horror. "I should have... I'm sorry." He ran out of the room. 

"Keith, wait!" Shiro called after him, he tried to go after him but a sharp pain in his back stopped him. Allura went over and healed him, too. 

"Lance, what the hell happened?" She turned to the other boy. 

"I was just trying to reminisce, asking if he remembered the time he got expelled from school. His daddy issues." Lance almost laughed. "I guess it's a really touchy subject for him."

"That wasn't right of you to push him like that and it wasn't right of him to hurt you like that either." Allura scolded him. 

"You know now what he can do, right?" Lance said. 

"What?" Shiro asked. 

"Everyone's afraid of him. He was expelled because even the teachers were scared. His powers, his 'gifts' depend on how he feels. Not to mention he doesn't even know his dad. Most of the time he was so angry. So he goes ballistic, like the fucking Hulk-"

"Language." Shiro interrupted him. 

"... The  _freaking_ Hulk." Lance rolled his eyes. 

"Lance, what would you have done if I couldn't heal you? How could you knowingly provoke someone like that?" Allura snapped. 

"I don't know." Lance shrugged. "I just wanted to show that I'm not scared of him." 

"That was not the time to prove your 'manliness' at all." Shiro began to leave the room. "Tell Coran we're going to need to repair this room. I'm going to see if I can find Keith."

-

"How do you know Lance?" Shiro asked Keith. He found him sitting grumpily on a bench in the park down town. He was now standing right in front of him. 

"We used to be friends." Keith grumbled. "He went to my house. We stopped being friends though." 

"Why?" Shiro asked. 

"He was always so competitive. Everything to him was to see who could do it better. And one time, this girl, he really liked her. They were going out but I caught her cheating on him so I just..." Keith trailed off. 

"Keith, did you-" 

"No, I didn't hurt her. But I did ruin school property. They just expelled me. And Lance thought I did it because the girl chose him over me. Which doesn't make sense! They were already going out, why would I get mad at-" Keith stopped. "Nevermind." 

"You almost killed him." Shiro said. 

"Yeah. That's why I left home. I'm a danger to everyone around me. I wanted to ask you for help, to help control myself, but I didn't know how to ask. So I'd just come in every once in a while." 

 _'Not to mention his daddy issues.'_ Shiro remembered Lance's words. He decided not to ask about that just yet, though. Maybe he'd spill to Allura?

"Well, for starters, what you did to Lance was unacceptable. You need to apologize immediately. Take responsibility for it. You're lucky I'm not throwing you in jail or that Lance isn't filing charges for it." 

"Yeah." Keith closed his eyes. 

"We can start training you next week. Come on, let's go back." Shiro smiled and stuck his hand out, hoping he'd take it. He took it but very reluctantly. 

-

"You almost killed me, you asshole! The fact that we used to be friends didn't mean anything either?!" Lance yelled at Keith when he tried to apologize. 

"Why would you mention something that sensitive to me?" Keith muttered.

"Okay, yeah, I admit that was pretty fucked of me to do. But, you didn't have to BREAK MY SPINE! And you wonder why people are scared of you. But, you know, the funny thing is despite the fact that I could have died, I'm still not scared of you." Lance crossed his arms. 

"I didn't break your spine. Look, can we just try to be friends again?" Keith stuck his hand out. Lance stared at it cautiously for a few minutes. Memories of his expulsion flooded his mind. Keith's jealous rage when he had won the girl. The fact that he choked him when he mentioned it again. 

"I don't know." Lance rubbed his chin. "You did a lot of shitty things." 

"Shiro's helping me be a better person." Keith shrugged. 

"I can't forgive you. But I guess we can try to be friends." Lance sighed. He took Keith's hand but pulled away immediately when he got shocked. "What the hell, man? Did you walk on a static rug or something?"

Keith looked away, his face turning red. "Must be it. I have to go." He ran away. 

"He's always running away." Lance said in an almost disgusted tone. 

-

"I need to see the one who runs this business." Someone yelled in the middle of the hallway. 

"I can help you just as easily as he-"

"NO, I HAVE TO TALK TO HIM AND HIM ONLY!" This person screamed. 

Shiro turned down the hall and saw someone really short talking to Allura. 

"Oh, great, Shiro, you're here." Allura sounded relieved. 

"That's him?" The short person turned to him.

"That is me." Shiro was confused. 

"This is Pidge. They've been wanting to see you so badly." Allura smiled forcefully.

"Great, we have to talk in private, away from listening ears." This person said.

"Just come to my office." Shiro led them inside. "Can I-"

"My name is Katie Holt. My father and brother were kidnapped by the government and they're after me, too. I know that you were once under their care, so I wanted your help to get me in so I can rescue them." Pidge quickly said. 

"That's... a lot to-"

"Can you help me or not? You're my only hope!" Pidge yelled. 

Shiro was silent. He started thinking about everything that they'd done to him. There was a program, the Mutant Program, where they were trying to make their own gifted people. Use them as weapons. Shiro was one of the subjects but he escaped thanks to the help of someone working on the inside. 

"Hello? I don't have much time." Pidge snapped their fingers in front of his face. 

"Okay," Shiro moved their hands out of his face. "I'll help you. When were they taken?" He asked. 

"A couple years ago." Pidge replied. 

"Wait, okay, so it was a couple years ago yet you say you don't have much time?" 

"I have a cab outside, I have to move from place to place to prevent getting caught and I don't have that much money." 

"They won't find you here." Shiro pat them on the head. They glared at him. He went outside and paid the cab then went back inside. "Going straight into their base is a huge risk, you should know that." 

"Well, yeah, but when I did research on it there's no other records of anyone escaping." Pidge shrugged. 

"Okay, look, we can help you. But you must understand that we can't immediately drop everything. Stuff like this takes careful planning." Shiro said. 

"Yeah, yeah." 

"How long have they been searching for you?" Shiro asked. 

"A couple months now. I can do things with my mind and they want to test it out. My mom isn't gifted so she's untouchable. My dad and brother, however, weren't so lucky." So blunt. 

"Alright, I'll tell Allura and we can-"

"No! Don't tell anyone else! It has to stay between me and you." Pidge jumped over his desk just to cover his mouth. 

"Okay, okay." Shiro moved their hands. "Do you want me to call you Pidge or Katie." 

"I don't really care as long as in public you called me Pidge." 

"Okay. I'll hire an investigator for you and we can-"

"Thank you thank you thank you!" Pidge jumped up and down and then ran behind his desk and hugged him. "Thank you so much." 

-

"Pidge, hey. Since we're roommates for now, we're going to have to be the best of friends." Lance said. "I am Lance, by the way." 

"Yeah." Pidge shrugged. 

Lance didn't appreciate being brushed off. "Okay, so, what are you in for?" 

"I'm not going to be here for very long. I just needed a place to cool off from my mom." Pidge said quickly, lying down on a bed and then rolling over to face away from Lance.

"Oh, me neither, I'm just here until my family is found or until my family finds me. Whichever is first, you know?" Lance said.

"Good night." Pidge suddenly said.

"Hey!" Lance protested. 

"He obviously doesn't want to talk to you." Keith said. He was sitting in the corner of the room. 

"And no one was even talking to you." Lance pointed at him.

"Well, now you are." Keith smirked. 

"Hey, how about this? You shut your fucking mouth!" Lance made a zipping motion on his mouth. 

"You always did have a way with words." Keith rolled his eyes, still smiling. 

"We aren't friends, you know! I told you I haven't forgiven you!" Lance reminded him.

"Oh, I know." 

"Would you two shut up!" Pidge yelled at them. 

"Yeah Keith, shut the fuck up."

"Lance, language!" Allura shouted from outside the room. 

"Sorry, I didn't mean to cuss with such a beautiful lady listening!" Lance shouted back. No response. 

-

"Keith is starting to open up more. Ever since Lance came, he's actually been talking." Allura reported to Shiro.

"He just needed someone he knew." Shiro said. "But the fight they had, that still concerns me. For all we know he can go on another rampage." 

"That's why you're going to start counseling him." 

"No, that's your job. I'm just going to help him control himself."

"I think the only way you can do that is by getting down to his core." Allura put a hand on his shoulder. "And I think you're the best choice for that."

"But you know how to handle them so much better." Shiro protested. 

"I do. But you're going to get his trust much faster than I will. It's like killing two birds with one stone." 

-

"So, uh, I'm Hunk. I love to cook. I don't really have any requests. I just don't really have anywhere to go. I know you guys like to house us gifted people." This new kid, Hunk, introduced himself to Allura.

"What can you do, Hunk?" Allura asked. 

"I can disappear. Like, turn invisible. But I can't control it. Randomly I'll just vanish. It's weird. I wasn't always like this, though. It just started happening a few weeks ago." 

"Were you homeless this entire time?" 

"No, I was with my uncle and aunt."

"What happened?"

"Well, I told them I wanted to be a chef. They really didn't like that. I can't live in a house where my dreams are looked on as something negative, you know?" Hunk shrugged. 

"And just a few weeks ago you started turning invisible? Interesting." Allura leaned back in her chair. 

-

"Hunk! My man, I didn't know you were gifted!" Lance hugged Hunk when he walked into the cafeteria. 

"Well, it's a new thing. What happened to you? After that crash you just went-"

"Crash?" Lance asked. "What crash?"

"The..." Hunk thought about it and decided it was for the best to not remind him. Maybe acting like he didn't remember it was a coping mechanism? "Nevermind, it is good to see you again!" Hunk hugged him again but tighter this time. 

Keith was watching from a table nearby. He was about to drink some milk but it started boiling in the carton and he dropped it from how hot it suddenly was. 

"Pathetic." Pidge said as they were writing something down from a book.

"What?" Keith was trying to clean it with his pulled out sleeves.  

"Oh, nothing. If that milk touches any of my stuff I will fucking kill you." Pidge glanced at Keith for a second.

"Okay." Keith started to frantically wipe it. 

"For the love of- Use napkins or something." Pidge moved their notes and shut the book as the milk got closer. "How were you raised?"

"Not very well." Keith sighed, staring at his wet sleeves. 

"So, this is my room. I share it with some dude named Pidge who hates talking and, get this, Keith." 

"You mean the kid that was expelled?" Hunk gasped. 

"Yeah! Can you believe it? And he almost killed me for reminding him." Lance muttered this part so that Keith wouldn't hear. "But I'm NOT SCARED OF HIM OR ANYTHING!" He yelled that part to make sure Keith did hear this. 

"Yeah, yeah, for sure." Hunk nodded. 

-

"We need more volunteers." Allura collapsed onto the couch in Shiro's office. "How are we going to do these requests if there's no one else to supervise?" 

"Coran can watch them while I go with Pidge." Shiro told her.

"But do you think he can handle all of them?" She asked. 

"Well, you're going to be here." Shiro reminded her. 

"Yes but what if I'm talking to someone or-"

"Just relax, we won't be gone for too long." Shiro said. "Maybe two days at the most?" 

"I wish you'd tell me what you were doing." Allura raised a brow. 

"I promised them I wouldn't say anything. It's something they themselves have to approach you with." 

"I can respect that. Just the suspense, you know it kills me sometimes."

-

 


	2. Family? What family?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro questions a few of Lance's family members, gains more insight into Keith's abilities, some classic bickering, and there's still more confusion than ever.

-

“So you and your entire family managed to squeeze in to one van?” Allura asked Lance.

“Yes. It’s amazing, really.”

“How did they all fit?”

“It was a huge as- huge van.” Lance cleared his throat.

“Are you sure you guys weren’t split in to different cars? How would you have had room to sleep if all of you were cramped in the same van?” Allura pressed.

“I’m sorry but what does this have to do with finding my family?” Lance sounded serious.

“Nothing. I’m just curious, is all.” Allura replied.

“How’s the progress on that, by the way?” Lance asked.

“Well, Shiro might have found one of your uncles but we don’t know for sure. He’s going to see him.”

“Great! Keep me updated.” Lance stood up. “Now, I need my beauty sleep.” He winked and did the finger guns again. “Hit me up if you just want to talk about you.” He began to leave but he accidentally walked into the door frame. “I meant to do that.” He said quickly before leaving.

-

“In most cases, gifted kids aren’t really born with it. Or rather, they don’t have it immediately. An event triggers it, a catalyst basically. Like with Hunk, he had just recently gained his ability to disappear. And not everyone is limited to just one ability, as demonstrated with Keith. He has so much power but no way to control it.” Allura explained to Shiro. “Lance, he’s also a special case. There’s something about him, I know he’s one of them, but the question is what can he do?”

“He was in a crash, it’s probably just a mixture of amnesia and denial.” Shiro theorized.

“That could be it. But he says he took a nap right before it all happened, how did he survive? Usually people unbuckle themselves to nap. And assuming everyone else died but they were wearing seatbelts…”

“There’s something else, obviously.” Shiro nodded. “Well, we’ll get more details when I visit his uncle later today.”

“I have another session in a few minutes, I’ll keep you updated if I find anything else out.” Allura said before leaving the office.

-

“Keith, stop shocking me!” Lance yelled. “Stop wearing socks or something, seriously.”

“It’s not my fault the floors are so staticy.” Keith grumbled.

“Funny, I don’t have that problem.” Pidge muttered, lowkey wanting to start drama.

“Come on, guys, there’s no reason to fight.” Hunk said. “Keith, just apologize to Lance.”

“Fine, I’m sorry you’re too weak to handle a couple of weak shocks.” Keith said.

“I’ll show you a couple of weak shocks!” Lance got in his face but someone clearing their throat stopped him from actually doing anything. Shiro was standing at the entrance to the room. “Haha, Keith, my man. That was how you defend yourself against predators. You’re welcome.” He pat Keith on the shoulder and flinched when he felt yet another shock.

“Just stop touching me.” Keith muttered, his cheeks slightly red now.

“Keith. Today will be your first session of training.” Shiro tried to make it sound fun.

“Hey, when are we going to do our _thing_?” Pidge asked.

“We’ll talk tomorrow. I already have something planned out.” Shiro replied. Keith quickly got up and slipped his shoes on then waved to everyone before quickly leaving the room with Shiro. Lance flipped them off once Shiro's back was turned.

“Seriously, screw that guy sometimes. I bet he shocks people because he hates them.” Lance retorted.

“I don’t think it’s hatred.” Pidge said.

“What do you mean?” Lance asked.

“Nothing, I was just thinking out loud.” Pidge shrugged.

“Hey, you guys want to play a game?” Hunk suddenly asked.

“Oh come on Hunk, what do I look like, a ten year old?”

“You’re never too old for Monopoly.” Hunk held the game up from where he was hiding it behind his back.

“Oh, fuck yeah, I’ll crush you!”

“You want to join, Pidge?” Hunk asked.

“No, I’m good.” Pidge replied, lying down on their bed and facing away from them. _‘Another day at this stupid place.’_ They thought.

-

“We’re going to come here whenever we do these sessions.” Shiro told Keith. They were standing in the middle of a grassy field at the park. There was a slight breeze and it was mostly empty. It was perfect. “The environment here should keep you generally calm.” He explained, sitting down. Keith silently sat down as well. “So, first things first. Tell me when it started.”

“What do you mean by _it_?” Keith asked.

“Your mood changing abilities. When did it start?”

Keith shrugged.

“You need to cooperate with me if you want this to work.” Shiro explained.

“I just don’t feel like telling you my life story.”

“You don’t have to. You just need to tell me if this is something you grew up with or…”

“It’s always been like this.” Keith muttered. “I cried a lot when I was a kid. People thought it was cool how there’d be mini rainstorms above me and me only.”

“So that happens when you’re sad? I obviously know that anger leads to strength, what else is there?” Shiro asked. Keith suddenly looked embarrassed.

“That’s it.”

“Keith…”

“Okay, as far as I know, nothing happens if I get scared. When I’m jealous I heat up. And… that’s it.” Keith sighed.

“Alright…” Shiro decided not to pry.

_You need to get down to his core. Gain his trust._

“You want to know why I always where a coat? And gloves?” Shiro asked.

“I never noticed.”

“Okay, well, let’s pretend you did. Do you want to know?”

“Does it matter? You’re obviously going to tell me anyway.” Keith replied with an annoyed voice.

“Ha. No.” Shiro shook his head. “You’re going to learn respect, first. You don’t live with your parents anymore, you’re here now. There’s actual rules you need to follow. We not only help kids with problems, we teach kids how to live their daily lives despite what they have as well. And you, you can NOT go through life in the state you’re in. You’re also going to be homeschooled until you learn to control your temper. Any questions?”

“No, that sounds fine to me.” Keith replied.

“You don’t have to open up to me right away, but we’re going to see a lot of each other. You might as well learn to at least try to warm up to me. I don’t mean to come off as harsh, I’m sorry if I did.”

Keith shook his head. “You told me how it is.” He gave a half-smile.

“Now that we have that out of the way… Mind telling me exactly what you can do, now?”

-

“Hunk, how can you just buy the railroads and nothing else?” Lance asked as he bought the second blue property.

“The railroads are really all you need to make a steady profit.” Hunk replied.

“That’s just what losers who failed to buy a full set of properties say.” Lance laughed.

“You’ll see.”

An hour later and Hunk had 1,200 dollars while Lance only had 350 and several mortgaged properties.

“B-But… All you have are the railroads…” Lance was mortified. He landed on chance and gulped when the card said to go to the nearest railroad and pay double the rent. “Hunk, buddy, can you just let me off the hook this once?”

“No mercy for the weak.” Hunk was smiling evilly.

Lance cried and collapsed onto the board, ruining the game. “You win. I give up.”

“You guys are so LOUD!” Pidge covered their head with a pillow.

“Hey, man, we never went above a whisper!” Lance alerted them.

“I can confirm.” Hunk nodded. “Is it your mind? Is it so advanced that you can hear things much louder than they really are?” Hunk suddenly asked in a serious voice. It was almost startling how his attitude changed so quickly. “You should probably get earphones for that or something.”

“How would you know?” Pidge asked.

“No reason.” Hunk said a little too quickly, smiling again. “I’m going to go eat, do you guys want to come with me?”

 “I’m too ashamed to eat.” Lance replied sadly, still lying down on the board.

“Okay well my room is just next door, I’m going to bed after I eat but just in case you guys want to talk to me or anything I’ll be right there.” Hunk said before leaving.

Keith came in a few minutes later and almost tripped over Lance lying on the floor. “What the hell are you doing on the floor?” He asked.

“Waiting for the sweet embrace of death.” Lance replied. “Fuck off.”

“Oh my god, it was just one stupid game, get over it!” Pidge groaned, throwing their pillow at him. Lance picked it up and threw it back.

“Might as well start to clean it… Unless… Pidge?” Lance looked to them with a big smile.

“No. I don’t use my mind for such menial tasks.” Pidge hugged their pillow.

“Keith, buddy, you want to help?”

“If I remember correctly you told me to, and I quote, ‘fuck off’.” Keith smirked, going to his bed at the corner of the room.

“Damn.” Lance sucked up his pride and cleaned up.

-

“Are you mister McClain?” Shiro asked whoever answered the door that he just knocked on.

“Yes.” The man replied cautiously, studying Shiro.

“I’m from the orphanage down the street. I’m here to-”

“I’m not donating.” He slammed the door shut. Shiro sighed and knocked again. “I said I don’t want to-”

“I’m not here to ask for a donation. I’m here because we recently got your nephew, Lance McClain.”

“Oh, no.” The man sighed. “Tell him I died in the crash.”

“What? Why?” Shiro asked.

“That kid is crazy. He was always talking to himself, standing in this empty fucking house all the time. His mom and dad tried to take him to a therapist, thought maybe he was bullied at school so he came up with imaginary friends. They instead died in that stupid crash on the way there. I say he caused it.” Mr. McClain explained.

“What do you mean he was always talking to himself?” Shiro was extremely interested, now. Allura would love to hear this.

“I don’t fucking know. He was saying something about his cousin or whatever. The thing is, his cousin died a few years ago. And his sister was pregnant but he kept insisting that he already knew the kid. It was fucking insane.” Mr. McClain sighed. “I don’t want that kid living with me so just tell him I was in the van or something. None of us wanted him, that’s why he was sent off to the foster care.”

“Who else?” Shiro asked, feeling a little angry now.

“His sister survived the crash, too but her child died. She didn’t feel like dealing with Lance and his weird delusions so she didn’t bother taking him in, either. She lives across town in those fancy apartments if you want to go bother her instead. I don’t know where exactly though, you’re on your own with that.”

“You don’t even refer to her as family either?”

“My sister was crazy and she gave birth to some crazy kids. I want no part of it.”

“Thank you for your time.” Shiro said through grit teeth. He turned and left. He’ll talk with his sister tomorrow morning.

-

“That’s horrible.” Allura gasped when Shiro explained what he learned to her.

“He just acted like he was dead, too.” Shiro said. “He kept calling him crazy and insane, completely uncalled for.”

“So my suspicion is correct. He’s gifted.” Allura said.

“Well, what if he’s just schizophrenic?”

“If he was, he’d still be showing symptoms now.” Allura replied. “And don’t talk so lightly about mental illness like that. The last thing I need is ableism in _my_ orphanage.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry. I’m just still trying to wrap my mind about how hateful his uncle was.”

“There’s more to this.” Allura said. “Tell me everything about tomorrow morning. I’ll call Lance in for a meeting, hopefully he’s… cooperative.”

“Don’t just drop the fact that his parents are dead.” Shiro warned her.

“Of course, you don’t need to tell me that. I know how to do my job.” She snapped before leaving his office.

Sometimes Shiro forgets the impressive fact that she managed to start this from business from nothing and she’s still only twenty-one. The whole place is even named after her.

-

“Shiro! Long time no talk!” Coran, Allura’s uncle, greeted him the next day.

“It’s only been a week.” Shiro laughed awkwardly then squeezed past him and quickly made his way to his office.

“And that’s one week too long, I’m afraid.” Coran followed him.

“The man, the boss, Takashiro himself, in the flesh!” Lance suddenly called out from across the hall. He quickly made his way over to the office and got in before Shiro could shut the door. “What did my uncle say?” He immediately asked.

“Allura will talk to you about it.” Shiro replied.

“Whaaaaat? Come on, I already told you that I need to keep a manly image for her.” Lance protested.

“Between you and me,” Shiro leaned in and began to whisper. “She likes sensitive guys.”

“Ohhhh, really?” Lance gasped, clinging onto every word.

“Yep. But that’s between you and me.”

“Gotcha.” Lance nodded. “Thank you.” He said before leaving the office.

That reminded Shiro, he had to go see his sister.

“I have business to attend to. Can you… uh…” Shiro didn’t want to give responsibility of his office to this man. “Just watch over the kids? Make sure no one fights?” He asked.

“Leave it to me.” Coran nodded.

“Great.” Shiro left.

-

“Today should be my last day here.” Pidge told Hunk at breakfast.

“Oh.” Hunk sounded unconvinced. Or unamused. Pidge couldn’t really tell.

“Yep. I’ll probably leave without saying goodbye to Lance. He was annoying. But he did keep the place alive.”

“True.” Hunk nodded.

“Not very talkative?”

“No, I just don’t care.” Hunk replied.

“Rude.” Pidge felt like they should be offended but they somehow weren’t.

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean it like that…” Hunk pointed to his food. “Just the food, you know? I’m trying to really taste it. Get a feel for the ingredients.”

“It’s just cereal.” Pidge raised a brow.

“I know what it is.”

-

“I’m here for a Ms. McClain?” Shiro spoke into the speakers at the entrance to the apartments. The Evergreen Estates. They looked expensive.

“And who is this? What’s your relation to her?” A dull voice spoke back.

“I’m from the orphanage down town. Allura’s House for-”

“Yeah, yeah. Apartment one-thirteen. Building C.” The gates opened and Shiro drove to the parking area for building C. He went over to one-thirteen and took a huge breath before knocking on the door.

“Yes?” A tired woman answered the door.

“I’m with the orphanage, I’m here about your brother.”

“Oh, yes, Lance.” She sighed. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen him.”

“Your uncle told me you wanted nothing to do with him.”

“Have you ever lost your own child? Lance thinks he can talk to people who aren’t there. I didn’t…” She looked dizzy. “Excuse me. I’m leaving the country to be with my grandparents next week. I want to just, forget all this.”

“We believe Lance is gifted.” Shiro said.

“Gifted? You mean he has super powers?” She asked.

“I guess?” Shiro shrugged.

“Like what? What could he have?”

“We don’t know. But we’re trying to figure it out by asking around. He originally came to us to find you, he has no memory of the crash. To him, he was just lying down in the car one day and woke up in an unfamiliar place.”

“You know, it would make sense if he did have some kind of super power. Like a force field, or something. His seatbelt was unbuckled. When they hit us, our parents were killed on impact but he was thrown back and hit his head, a miracle he survived. Maybe something softened the blow? Or just, I don't know, kept him alive? As a matter of fact, he shouldn’t even be alive. It was so severe he was unconscious for a week. _A week._ They said he might not even remember his name when or if he wakes up.” She explained. “But I… I was a coward. I left as soon as I was discharged. And here I am, about to leave the country. I’m sorry but I don’t think I can do this.” She teared up. “It's good to know he's okay and that he might not have been crazy like his uncle claimed, though. Tell him that I send my love.” She said before closing the door.

-

“Lance, do you remember much about your life before you went on that trip?” Allura asked.

“Hm. I remember playing with my nephew. He loved peek-a-boo. And my cousin was obsessed with battleship. My niece would get so jealous whenever I played with her brother." Lance thought for a second. "Oh, my parents didn’t like it when I played with them for too long. They wouldn't tell me why, though.” Lance shrugged.

“Do you remember where you were going? On the trip, I mean.”

“I don’t…” Lance started to really think about it. Where were they going? Was it even a vacation? Jeesh, why was everything so fuzzy? “I don’t remember.” He muttered sadly.

“Alright.”

“So… Give me the details. Shiro said you’d tell me how it went with my uncle.” Lance tried to cheer himself up.

“Well, he mentioned that you and your family were in a crash.”

“I think I’d remember a crash.” Lance laughed lightly.

“That’s the thing. Maybe you hit your head and obtained amnesia? I don’t know the exact details just yet but you and your family were in an accident. That is how you guys were separated. And it would make sense if you got an injury like that.”

“You know, I do remember waking up in the hospital now.” Lance nodded. “But. That still doesn’t answer where they are?”

“Allura.” Shiro stepped in. “We need to talk.”

“I’m in the middle of something.”

“Lance, go outside.” Shiro said.

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” Lance got up. “But I’m watching you.” He added before leaving.

“I was just about to approach the subject of his dead parents.” Allura sighed.

“His sister said he did suffer a head injury, but there was literally no logical explanation as to how he survived, apparently.”

“I feel like the answer is right in front of us but I just can’t put my finger on it. You know that feeling?” She asked him.

“Yes, I know exactly what you mean.” Shiro said. “Now, I need to discuss with Pidge what our game plan is.” He began to leave.

“You interrupted an important session just to tell me that much?” Allura asked.

“Hey, it was more information for Lance’s case.” Shiro gave her a ‘guilty as charged’ look before leaving.

“I wonder about him sometimes.” Allura sighed to herself.

-


	3. Chainsaw

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance's problem is explored on more but things still don't make sense. Keith and Shiro have a nice meeting but someone is watching. Pidge and Hunk just can't get a break.

-

“Where are you going?” Lance asked Pidge, who was shoving some books into a backpack.

“I’m going to the library.” They replied, not looking at him. They zipped the bag up and then put it on their back before beginning to leave.

“Hey, I’d like to come. Be nice to go somewhere other than here or the school.” Lance said.

“You’d better be ready now then because I’m not waiting for anyone.” Pidge left the room to prove their point.

“Hey Hunk, you want to go to the library with us?” Lance called out when he stepped into the hall.

“Uh, sure.” Hunk peaked out from his room next door. “Let me just get my shoes.”

“Pidge, wait a second!” Lance called out.

“I said I wait for no one.” Pidge yelled back. They stood still, however. They let out a big sigh once Lance and Hunk joined them and then the trio was off.

“What are you going there for?” Lance asked.

“Obviously to get some books.” Pidge replied irritably.

“No shit Sherlock, I mean what kind specifically? I’m a fan of romance, not to brag or anything.” Lance winked at Hunk.

“It’s not really any of your business.” Pidge pulled their hood up when some people walked by.

“Then why else would you invite us to come?”

“I didn’t, you invited your damn selves.” Pidge practically ripped the library door open.

“Damn, the library is so much closer than I thought.” Lance said when he walked in. The librarian shushed him. “My bad.” He whispered.

Pidge went to the non-fiction area and began looking for books under the mechanical section.

“What do you think he’s looking for?” Lance whispered to Hunk.

“I don’t know.” Hunk shrugged. “I’m going to see if they have any cook books, I’d like to start brushing up on my skills again.” He turned and left the aisle.

“Hmph.” Lance decided to just look at the books around him since he didn’t feel like searching for the fiction section.

“Hey, anything specific that you’re looking for?” Some guy in a suit approached him.

“Not really, just came with a friend and now I realize it was a mistake.” Lance sighed.

“Might as well make the best of it, right?” The man in a suit said before he pulled some book off the aisle and handed it to him. “I recommend this.”

“’Eaten Alive at a Chainsaw Massacre: The Films of Toby Hooper _.’_ Uh…” Lance looked at him suspiciously.

“Or, how about this one?” The man handed him another book.

“The Chainsaw operating manual… Sir, is there something-”

“Help me, please.” The man suddenly grabbed him roughly by the shoulders. Lance dropped his books in surprise. “I can’t say exactly how this happened but I need you to do me a favor.”

“Let me go!” Lance gasped, trying to move out of his grasp, accidentally kicking one of the books.

“Don’t make a scene, they’ll kick you out. I promise you just need to do this teensy little favor and then I’ll let you go.”  

“Where could it be?” Pidge whispered, reading all the book titles. “Dang it, I can’t find it.”

“Where is it?” They heard Lance ask someone. He was probably talking to the librarian. Pidge went over to his aisle.

 “Where’s the librarian?” Pidge asked, looking around.

“Not here.” Lance said.

“Who were you talking to, then?”

“Him.” Lance pointed to an empty space in front of him.

“Um, what?” Pidge raised a brow at him. “I don’t see anyone there. Are you okay?”

“Pidge, he’s right there.” Lance then laughed a little. “You must be messing with me, good one.” He looked over his shoulder. “Yeah, I’ll head there right now. Just let me get my other friend, we’re kind of an iconic trio.”

“Lance?” Pidge was a little concerned, now. “You know what? I share a room with you and a raging homosexual in a special orphanage with a bunch of other kids with weird powers, why am I even surprised?” They shook their head then left the aisle, looking for the librarian.

“Do you have anything on how to make homemade walkie talkies or anything similar to that degree?” Pidge asked the lady. She just looked at them funny. “Uh, I mean, anything on mechanically engineering any kind of device from homemade scrap and the like would be fine, too. I was just looking through your mechanical department and I couldn’t find anything.”

“Hm. Check the science department, it would more than likely be there. May I ask why you’re looking for this?”

“A school project.”

“Can I see your library card?”

“Yes.” Pidge reached in the backpack to pull it out then froze, realizing the name on it was Katie Holt. “On second thought, I just remembered I left it at home. Can I apply for a new one?”

“Of course, but you need your guardian’s signature since you’re under eighteen.”

Damn it.

“Thank you.” Pidge took the application and began to leave. No point in returning these books, either. They really should have thought this through.

“Lance, Hunk, I’m leaving.” They announced, earning a shush from the librarian.

“Wait, I’m going to check a few things out.” Hunk said, emerging from a dark aisle nearby, holding a few books. “Just give me a few minutes.” Pidge suppressed a groan and nodded, their shoulders slumping in surrender as they sat at a bench near the entrance to wait.

“Where’s Hunk?” Lance came up to them suddenly.

“He went to check some books out.” Pidge replied without looking at him.

“Okay well my new friend here says he needs my help with something.” Lance gestured to the empty space next to him. Pidge looked up, unimpressed.

“Are we really starting with this again?”

“What are you talking about? Look, you speak to him.” Lance said to the empty space. “What do you mean?”

“Lance, there is _no one_ there!” Pidge said.

“That’s it, get out you two!” The librarian scolded them.

“Great.” Pidge marched outside. Lance followed.

“What do you mean there’s no one there?” Lance asked, his voice slightly breaking. Pidge started to feel a little bad so they decided to be more gentle about it.

“Only you can see him.” They began. “Lance, I think you’re talking to a ghost.”

“What?” Lance looked at the empty space next him in horror. “But he touched me, I could feel him, he felt some objects, I don’t-”

“Okay guys, I’m done.” Hunk had just left the library.

“It turns out that our pal Lance here can speak to dead people.” Pidge said.

“Woah, like the guy from ‘The Sixth Sense’?” Hunk gasped. Lance was pale and looked anything but excited.

“Then, what do you want from me?” Lance asked the ghost.

“I can’t say, I’m bound by the rules. You just have to follow me.” The ghost responded.

“Lance?” Pidge put a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll come with you to help whoever this is, if it makes you feel any better.”

“Okay, hold up, what makes you think this isn’t just an evil vengeful ghost out to lure us in and get us killed, too?” Hunk said.

“You watch too many horror movies.” Pidge rolled their eyes.

-

“You really can’t do anything unless you feel a specific way?” Shiro asked. “Is there a default at least?”

“I can hear really well. The couple behind us are talking about going to a sex store after this.” Keith replied. Shiro looked behind him and saw said couple way out in the distance, like barely even noticeable.

“Impressive.” Shiro whistled. “Are you Superman?”

“I’m not indestructible.” Keith shrugged, a smile coming to his face.

“What if you think about being mad, would that work?”

“Would you cry if you just thought about crying?” Keith asked.

“Well in this case things can be different. Just think of something, anything.” Shiro sat down on the grass, looking up at him.

Keith looked deep in thought, his hair suddenly standing up as if he were just electrocuted. It reminded Shiro of a cat.

“What are you thinking about? I think it worked.” Shiro knew exactly what he was thinking about.

“Shut up.” Keith tried to smooth his hair back down. “It’s harder than you think.”

“I know.” Shiro noticed some guy standing off nearby, watching them and it reminded him. “Do you know how to fight?”

“If I’m mad enough to fight someone I won’t need any actual fight moves to win.” Keith said, his voice sounding almost threatening.

“Let’s say someone attacks you, a stranger for example. What if you don’t get mad? What are you going to do then?” Shiro leaned back onto a tree they were standing by.

“Why would I ever need to worry about that?” Keith asked.

“You’re not going to live here forever. My job is to make sure you’re completely prepared for-”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it. Does that mean you’re going to teach me how to fight?” Keith sounded excited.

“Yes, but it’s not fun and games. It’s painful work, there may be times where you end up hurt.”

“I’m up for it.” Keith said quickly. “When do we start?”

“We can start next week. I’ll rent us one of those training rooms at the gym.” Shiro replied. “For now, we’re going to try and see if we can activate any of your other skills without the feeling needed behind it.”

“Activate? What am I, a robot?” Keith was half kidding.

“You know what I mean.” Shiro stood up. “Show me you have some control. Pretend I’m someone you hate.”

“That’s not going to work.” Keith crossed his arms.

“Just try. I’m the one person you hate the most, the one person you just wish didn’t exist.” This was probably a bad idea.

“I can’t.” Keith looked down. “I don’t want to.”

“Okay, maybe not the person you hate the most but someone you do hate.”

“I don’t want to.” He said again.

“Alright. We can try something else, then.” Shiro noticed the stranger was still standing there. “You see him?” He gestured in that direction with his head. “He’s been watching us this whole time. Does that bother you?”

Keith turned to look.

“Don’t make it obvious.” Shiro said quickly, making Keith stop. “But he’s been staring at us this whole time. Do you know him?”

“No.”

“Does that unnerve you?”

“What are you trying to do?”

“I’m trying to get an idea on what emotions provoke an ability and which ones don’t.”

“But I already told you, fear isn’t something that gets a reaction.”

“It could change. You didn’t know you could attract static whenever you-”

“But that’s different!”

“Because you’ve never felt that way before. Have you ever been scared?”

“What kind of question is that? Of course I have.”

“Do you remember exactly when? Or what happened?”

Keith went silent for what felt like minutes until he finally said; “I was a little kid, I don’t really remember _exactly_ but I think I would at least remember if something like that happened.”

“That’s it for today.” Shiro suddenly said. That guy in the distance was starting to bother him.

“What? It’s only been, what, twenty minutes?” Keith protested.

“You hungry? Let’s go get lunch.” Shiro began to walk off the field. He heard Keith’s footsteps follow him from behind. “You got money?”

“Where the hell would I have gotten any money?” Keith grumbled.

-

Lance gulped, beginning to walk down the sidewalk. “He says it’s… this way.” His voice was soft. Pidge figured he was just taking this in. After all, he was convinced that he was ‘normal’.

“Are we really going to listen to him?” Hunk asked. Pidge glancing at him and then following Lance gave him his answer. “If you two end up ghosts as well, don’t say I didn’t warn you!” He sighed when he saw that they kept going and gave in, running up to them.

“Lance, where is he taking us?” Pidge asked.

“He says we have to go down here.” Lance lifted a shaky finger, pointing down an alley nearby. It was between an old brick apartment and a liquor store.

“Yeah, this is where I draw the line.” Hunk stopped walking. “I’m not going any farther.”

“Are you sure you want to wait here alone? This looks like a pretty bad area of the city.” Pidge was slightly scared, too. Not that they’d actually admit it, though.  

“I’m going.” Lance said. “Up to you if you want to join me or not.” He then disappeared into the alley.

“Oh no, no, no, no, we can’t just let him die. We have to go.” Hunk was conflicted, should he run back and get help or go in?

“I’m going in, too.” Pidge decided. They went into the alley after Lance. They saw Lance standing near the end on the other side and quickly walked up to stand next to him. Something smelled awful. They looked to the source and saw a dead guy, lying on the floor, a chainsaw sticking out of his chest.

“Thanks. You’re the link, kid. You’re the only one who can communicate between both our worlds. And I’m going to take your place.” The man, ghost, entity, whatever it was suddenly told Lance. It picked the chainsaw up and revved it up. To Pidge, a chainsaw just magically began to float and start out of nowhere.

“Let’s get out of here!” Pidge screamed, turning to run but the sight of Hunk suddenly coming in stopped them.

“What’s going on?” He asked, eyes closed. He took another step and tripped, falling and accidentally taking Lance with him. Lance fell forward, barely missing the chainsaw and landing on the ghost. The ghost stumbled and his foot touched his decaying body, causing him to suddenly vanish inside it. The chainsaw fell and vibrated violently on the floor.

“Oh my god.” Lance freaked out, trying to get back up but Hunk was on his legs. “Get the fuck off me!” He yelled. Hunk rolled off without question. Lance quickly picked himself up and then ran out of the alley, Pidge following without question. Hunk got up, confused, but then saw the chainsaw and the body and threw up. Pidge came back in, grabbed his arm, and pulled him as much as they could until they were both out of there.

“I told you it was a bad idea, I told you and you didn’t listen!” Hunk panted once they ran a few good hundred feet away.

“I thought if I followed him I could get an idea of what the fuck was going on.” Lance said through grit teeth. “I just wanted to know what the hell he wanted. This all seems so familiar.” He wiped his eyes.

“Never again am I letting you come with me anywhere and never am I ever following you again.” Pidge told him.

“Oh, damn it.” Hunk suddenly groaned. “I dropped my books in there.”

“You’re more than welcome to go get them.” Pidge said bitterly.

“I’m good. I just can’t believe I… I…” Hunk started to gag.

“Throw up over there.” Pidge pointed to a bush.

“How can you be so calm about this?!” Hunk yelled after throwing up again.

“I’m not. Someone just needs to be the silver lining.” Pidge replied breathlessly.

“I’m going back.” Lance suddenly announced before leaving them.

“Hey, wait for us!” Pidge called out after him.

-

“Where’s Pidge?” Shiro asked Allura.

“Last I heard he went to the library with Lance and Hunk. They are really loud.” Allura replied, organizing some files. “Then again, kids are just loud.”

“Lance, just calm down!” They heard Pidge yell from down the hall.

“Speak of the devil.” Allura said. Lance then busted in, the door slamming open. He was covered with blood, too. “What happened?” Allura asked in shock, going over to him. “Are you hurt?”

“No. Did you guys know?” He asked.

“Know what?” Shiro asked.

“That I could see dead people.”

Allura and Shiro looked at each other, looks of realization filling their features.

“That’s good, we can-”

“Please.” Lance interrupted her. “Please, find my family. I need to know how long this has been going on. I can’t remember exactly but everything just feels so familiar. Like this happened before.”

“What are you talking about? Just sit down and we can talk about it.” Allura said, her voice calm and soothing.

Lance shook his head. “No. Just find them.”

“There’s nothing to find, Lance.” Shiro told him.

“Shiro, this isn’t the time.” Allura scolded him but he ignored her.

“I’m sorry to tell you this, but your parents are dead. They died in a car crash.”

Lance was silent for a second and then his face brightened, he didn’t look that distraught at all. “I can still see them.” He said. “The ghost, the one I saw at the library, he told me that they’re bound to the area near where they died. If I can just-”

“Wait, wait, Lance, seriously, what in the world are you talking about?” Allura interrupted.

“Nevermind. You’re very beautiful and all but sheesh, you’re dense.” He looked to Shiro. “I’ll get back to you.” He left.

“I really have no idea either.” Shiro said to Allura. “When he comes back to me, we can have a nice get together like a good family and discuss it.” He tried to lighten the mood.

Allura peaked outside the office and saw Pidge nearby, trying to talk to Lance who walked right by them as if they weren’t even there. “Pidge, come here.” She called them over. Pidge looked around before reluctantly making their way over. “Can you tell me what happened?”

“I just wanted to go to the library, not go on a journey of some guy’s self-discovery.” Pidge sighed in response. “He started to talk to someone who wasn’t there, we followed him to an alley where there was a dead body, I saw a magic floating chainsaw, then it just fell, and we ran. I don’t exactly what happened but all I know is I’m never screwing with the dead. This was also pretty traumatizing so if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to shower this off of me and then try to pretend it never happened.” With that, they left before Allura could ask anything else.

“Well, now we know why he talked to people no one else could see.” Shiro shrugged.

“Yes, but, didn’t you say he was able to talk to his sister’s unborn child? How is that possible? It’s more than just simply talking to dead people. There’s something much bigger.”

“Well try to go easy on him, he’s still a kid.”

“Yes, I know.” Allura glared at him.

“Oh, uh, I just remembered I need to get some things ready for Pidge. I’ll talk to you later.” Shiro smiled before leaving the office. He went back to his office and almost groaned when he saw Coran in there, sitting in his chair.

“Busy day?” Coran asked.

“More confusing than it was busy.” Shiro sighed, closing the door behind him. “But it should be worth it once everything’s resolved.”

“You know, I’m great with kids. I could help.” Coran stood up.

“We could use more volunteers...” Shiro said, thinking about things he could do without being in the way.

“I can help the other kids. The ones who’ve been here a while already.” Coran suggested.

“Yeah, that’d be really helpful. Thank you.”

“No problem at all.”

-


	4. Overpowered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro updates Pidge, Keith discovers a new ability, Hunk is hiding something, and Shiro decides to adopt(?) Keith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the positive comments!! <3 I love seeing them!

-

“I found someone willing to take your case.” Shiro told Pidge the next day.

“After two weeks this is all you have to tell me?” Pidge was disappointed.

“I have other people to help, I told you I’m trying my best.” Shiro sighed.

“I’m sorry, it’s just, it’s been two years and I’ve done nothing. I’m tired of just sitting and waiting for a miracle that’ll never happen.” Pidge teared up. They quickly took their glasses off and wiped their eyes before anything spilled and cleared their throat. “Just, go on.”

“I told him about the man who helped free me and a sketch artist is coming in later to try and get the features down.” Shiro explained, looking at them sympathetically. He really wished he could help them more but, there were a lot of other things he had to do as well. “Are you sure I can’t tell Allura? Maybe another person being included could speed things up…”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll just have to suck it up.” Pidge shook their head.

“Do you have a family picture? The investigator will want to see what they look like.”

“Yeah, I’ll go get it.” Pidge got up and quickly went to their room, grabbing the picture and trying to ignore Keith and Lance, who were arguing about some useless nonsense.

“Stay out of my side of the room!” Keith said.

“I only stepped foot in it for a second!” Lance protested.

“One foot in _my_ territory could cause a lot of things!” Keith shouted, stomping his foot down for dramatic effect. He ended up breaking the boarded floor, creating a hole and getting his foot stuck.

“Oh, look what you did! All because you can’t control your stupid anger.” Lance pointed to it. Pidge quickly left. “Wait, Pidge can you report this? No? Okay. That’s cool.”

“Here.” Pidge basically slammed the photo on Shiro’s desk. Shiro was on the phone with someone so he just turned and mouthed a quick thank you.

They returned to the room and sighed to see Lance trying to get Keith out of the hole.

“Fucking Christ, man, how deep is it?” Lance groaned.

“Just shut up and pull harder!” Keith yelled.

“I am but you’re too deep!”

“You’re just not pulling hard enough!”

“Ow! I can’t when you keep shocking me whenever I try to get a good grip.”

“You’re getting too personal.”

“Personal?! I’m just trying to pull you out of a fucking hole!”

“Would you two just shut the hell up? Here, I’ll help.” Pidge walked over and inspected his foot. The entire foot was inside, broken pieces of wood sticking out around it. There’s no way they can remove it without causing real damage. “Okay, Keith, don’t panic, but we’re going to have to break your foot.”

“What?!”

“We can just get Allura and she’ll heal it for you, it won’t hurt for too long.” Pidge explained. “Now, we need some muscle to pull him out.”

“Hunk!” Lance let go of Keith, who fell and hit the floor with an ‘oomph.’ “I’ll be right back.” He ran out.

“So what can I do for my best friend? The same one that almost got me killed?” Hunk asked when he walked in.

“You need to rip that idiot,” Lance pointed to Keith who just flipped him off, “Out of that hole.” Lance pointed to the foot that was stuck.

“But wouldn’t that hurt him?” Hunk asked.

“That’s the point. It won’t get out unless we break it.” Pidge said.

“I’m not too thrilled, either.” Keith tapped the floor. “Can we get this over with?”

“I don’t think I want to do this.” Hunk said.

“Allura will heal him, it’ll be fine.” Pidge said.

“If you guys say so.” Hunk reluctantly walked over and picked him up by his armpits. He felt a small shock and dropped Keith in alarm. “What the heck?” Keith just groaned in frustration and Hunk quickly picked him back up. “Okay, okay… Heave-Ho.” He said with fake enthusiasm, pulling him out.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow!” Keith cried out. Finally, with a loud crack and a pop, his foot was ripped out of the floor board but it was in pieces. It was terribly mutilated and Keith stared at it wide-eyed.

“Oh my god.” Hunk turned to throw up.

“Not in the room!” Pidge said, looking away. Hunk ran out. Lance just stayed back, not wanting to see what they’re freaking out about.

“I’m going to get Allura.” He said, leaving.

Keith suddenly fell back and covered his mouth with his arm, trying to muffle his scream of pain. Pidge crouched down, eyes closed, hand reaching out until they felt something of Keith’s. “There, there.” They tried to comfort him. Allura came in and shook her head.

“And this happened because you two were fighting again?” She asked Lance to confirm. He nodded. “You will be switching rooms, then.”

“Can I go to Hunk’s room?” Lance asked excitedly. Allura ignored him, going to Keith. She suddenly looked confused.

“What is it?” Pidge asked.

“His foot, it’s healing itself.” She said. Pidge opened their eyes to see it was, indeed, healing itself. “Keith, this is remarkable! You can heal yourself.” Allura said happily. Keith just gave a weak thumbs-up. “I’m going to notify Shiro about this. In the meantime, Coran is coming here to repair this hole.”

“Who’s that?” Lance asked.

“My uncle. He’ll be here a lot more often if this keeps up.” Allura sighed.

“Is he the one I need to ask for a blessing?” Lance asked flirtatiously, winking. Allura ignored him and left the room.

“Keith, you’re steaming.” Pidge said.

“Is that a side effect from your healing powers?” Lance asked, oblivious.

“Yes.” Keith said quickly before Pidge can comment. He got up and cautiously applied pressure to the foot that was literally just mangled a few seconds ago. “I never even knew I could do this.” He was amazed with himself.

“Is the coast clear?” Hunk asked, peaking in.

“Yes.” Lance said. “We’re going to be roommates from now on, too.” Lance pat his back.

“She never confirmed that.” Pidge said.

“But she will.”

-

“I’m going to have to get them to switch rooms.” Allura concluded. She told Shiro about what had just happened.

“No, I have a better idea.” Shiro suddenly said. “Our training sessions have been getting nowhere, he still doesn’t completely trust me. I think the best way to get down to his core and gain his complete trust is if I take him completely under my wing.”

“What are you saying?”

“He’ll live with me.” Shiro said.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? He might destroy something, or cause damage to-”

“I need him to get comfortable enough to know he can feel things without there being very dire consequences. I’ll take him here with me whenever he wants so he isn’t lonely but for the most part, I think this is the best decision.” Shiro explained.

“I agree.” Allura said after thinking about it.

“I’ve actually been thinking about this for a while but today just prompted me to officially go for it.” Shiro said. “I’ll call him in after my appointment”

-

Hunk was playing Uno with Pidge and Lance was sitting in the corner of the room, looking out the window with a serious look on his face. He was deep in thought.

 _‘Just approach him calmly and ask what’s wrong. It can’t be that hard.’_ Keith thought to himself. “What’s wrong, Lance?” He asked.

“Oh, nothing.” Lance shrugged. “Just coming to terms with the fact that I can see dead people and that my parents are dead. You know, the usual.”

“He’s been randomly going from his usual self to this depressed state then right back to his usual state.” Pidge said. “Hunk, why are you even trying to play this with me? You know you can’t win.”

“It’s still worth a shot. Just imagine being able to tell people you beat a card game against a mastermind.” Hunk replied, deep in focus. Pidge just sighed.

“Hey, what is it that you can do? Maybe you can use yours to your advantage?” They suddenly said. “Then it’d be a fair fight.”

“Oh, uh, well…” Hunk looked down. “It depends.”

“What do you mean?” Pidge asked.

“Nothing. It would be useless in this.” Hunk sighed. “I can only teleport things, how is that helpful?”

“True. Pretty useless in Uno. How do you live?” Pidge shrugged.

 “You know what I just realized?” Lance said, sounding a little less depressed.

“Do tell us.” Pidge replied sarcastically.

“If Keith were a character in a video game or something, he’d be so overpowered. Super strength, electricity, healing, and who knows what else?” Lance stared at Keith. Keith was looking at Hunk suspiciously.

“I can also tell when people are lying.” He said. Hunk lifted his hands up in surrender, looking smug.

“Yeah if he were a character in a fighting game I would so choose him.” Pidge humored Lance.

“It’s not that big a deal.” Keith shrugged. Lance was basically praising him, that’s good progress on their slowly blossoming friendship. A warm feeling suddenly began to bubble up in his chest. Something he hadn’t felt in who knows how long. Had he ever even felt this?

“Woah, you’re glowing!” Lance stood up.

“What?” Keith looked at his hands.

“Pidge, turn the lights off.” Lance instructed. Pidge went over and switched them off. Keith did glow.

“Human glow stick.” Pidge was impressed.

“See? Overpowered! If I were in a car and I dropped something, I would never need to worry about a flashlight.”

Keith wasn’t sure if he was being made fun of or if he was still being complimented.

“Let’s add that to the list.” Lance grabbed a notebook from a desk nearby and grabbed a pen from Pidge’s bed, writing something down. “Only possible to do this in the dark thanks to our human glow stick. Again I say, overpowered.”

“Yeah, because I said you can use my pen.” Pidge turned the lights back on.

“We’re all friends here.” Hunk said. He looked at Keith and mouthed something.

 _‘Another time?’_ Keith thought that’s what he said.

“Hello!” Some old guy with a large mustache randomly popped in. Pidge screamed in surprise, quickly running behind Hunk. “Don’t mind me, I’m just here to fix the hole in the floor.”

“About time!” Lance shot a quick glare at Keith.

“You must be Coran.” Pidge said, still hiding behind Hunk.

“Yep. Nice to meet you all.” He said.

“Anyway,” Pidge looked at the Uno game. “Time to clean this up.”

“Our game isn’t even finished.” Hunk protested. Pidge kicked the deck over, making Hunk gasp out loud.

“It is now.”

“Savage.” Lance said.

“Finished!” Coran rubbed his hands together. “Call me if you need anything, I’ll be around.” He left.

“Did anyone else notice how he fixed it without any tools?” Hunk asked. “How did he do that?”

No one had an answer for him.

-

“You called me?” Keith was summoned to Shiro’s office later that day.

“Yes. Sit down.” Shiro pointed to a chair. Keith sat down.

“Allura told me about what happened…” Shiro began and Keith visibly sulked in his chair. “You’re not in trouble. I just decided that the best course of action is for you to live with me.”

“What? Really?” Keith asked. “Why?”

“I just think it’s easier for you, to have your own space. And we need to get closer to fully unlock your potential. This is the most convenient way.”

“Okay.” Keith didn’t know how to feel about this.

“I also think it would prevent further rampages or fights with Lance since you guys won’t be living together anymore.” Shiro added.

“Will I still at least be able to visit?” Keith asked.

“Yes.” Shiro nodded.

“If you really think this is for the best...” Keith sat up straight. “Does this mean you’re adopting me?”

“Technically.”

-

Keith went back to the room to gather what little he had. He grabbed a small bag next to his pillow and was stopped by Lance at the door.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He asked.

“Getting my stuff-”

“I’m the one switching to Hunk’s room.” Lance shook his head. “So just go back to your little area of the room and pretend this never happened.”

“Oh, no, I’m moving in with Shiro.” Keith said.

“Wait, you’re leaving?” Lance asked, sounding a little disappointed.

“Yeah.” Keith nodded, letting him think that it was forever. It’ll be so worth it to see the look of shock on his face tomorrow.

“Damn. Well, whatever. I didn’t like you here anyway.” Lance crossed his arms, stepping aside.

“What? Keith’s leaving?” Hunk suddenly came up.

“Yep.” Lance said.

“Aw, man. We could have gone from a trio to a quartet.” Hunk said.

“A pity, really.” Pidge spoke up. They were sitting on their bed, listening to something through headphones. The headphones were down now, though.

“Come on, everyone. Let’s all have a big group hug in farewell.” Hunk insisted. Pidge sighed before walking over. Hunk pulled all three of them in. “I loved us.” He whispered sadly. Keith smiled, the fuzzy feeling in his chest returning. He felt bad that in order to trick Lance he had to trick Hunk, too. Once he let them all go, Keith began to leave but Hunk put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” He whispered. Keith turned quickly in shock to look back at him, seeing that he had another smug grin. Keith blinked before deciding to grin right back. Great minds think alike, why is he surprised?

-

“There’s a mini laundromat provided for everyone here, I’ll show it to you tomorrow.” Shiro told Keith as they entered his two-story apartment room. There was a small living room with an entrance to the kitchen on the left and the mini staircase on the right. “At the end of the hall straight ahead upstairs is a room you can use. It was just a simple guest bedroom for whenever A- anyone would come over.” He explained. It was silent here. Back at the orphanage, Keith would overhear everyone’s conversations thanks to his amazing hearing but now it’s just silent. He wasn’t sure if he found it soothing or unsettling.

Shiro removed his coat, putting it on a hangar that was nailed to the wall by the door. Keith noticed that one of his arms were metallic, robotic? He wanted to ask but decided against it. Shiro removed one of his gloves but not the one on his robotic arm. He noticed Keith staring but didn’t acknowledge it. It was best to wait until he let his curiosity get the best of him.

“I’m going to bed now. There’s blankets and pillows in the hallway closet upstairs and if you need anything, just knock on my door. It won’t be locked.” Shiro said before heading upstairs. “Feel free to help yourself to whatever's in the kitchen, too.”

Keith sat down on one of the couches and thought about the day. What’s the deal with Hunk? Obviously there’s much more to him than they thought. Same thing with Pidge, he always got some untruthful vibe from him as well. Everyone just has their own inner demons he guessed.

-

“How did you sleep?” Shiro asked him the next morning. Keith’s hair was pulled back into a ponytail and his head was down on the table in the kitchen. He was distraught because he made eggs but some of the shells got inside and he was ashamed.

“Good.” Keith lied.

“I hope you’re ready to go.” Shiro said, noticing the untouched eggs.

“I still need to shower.”

“You can do that there. I have some spare clothes that might fit you upstairs, bring those.” Shiro said before putting his coat and glove back on.

Keith got some of his clothes and followed him outside.

“Down there is the laundromat.” Shiro pointed down an ominous hallway in between two apartment complexes. “I know it looks like something straight out of a horror movie but don’t worry, this place is safe.” He added. Keith was still unsure.

-

He quickly went inside the boy’s bathrooms and into the shower area, making sure he wasn’t seen by Lance just yet. He went inside one of the stalls and sighed in relief when he felt the hot water hit his back.

“I’m telling you Hunk, just a couple more years and we’ll totally be a thing.” He suddenly heard Lance’s voice. Shit. The stalls didn’t have doors so he just moved in deeper, burying his face into his arms, leaning against the wall.

“You know there’s other options. It’s not just us here.” Hunk said.

“Yeah but come on, name someone who can beat that? Plus, there’s no guys I find appealing here, either.” Lance sighed. “You know, I sensed potential with Keith. We could have had a good friendship going again.”

“Yeah. Friendship.” Hunk snorted. “You know that girl across the hall from us, the one who can earth bend? She’s cute.”

“Of course, the one straight out of Avatar.” Lance said. “What if she’s literally the avatar?”

“Stop.” Hunk said.

Keith tried so hard to not make a sound.

“There’s someone in here, they probably heard your dirty little secret.” Lance laughed.

“Shut up.” Hunk said.

“Well anyway, I’m going to shower. Wait for me.”

“See, I don’t get why you insisted on me coming with you.”

“Pidge almost killed me when I asked him so I thought you were the best choice.” Lance replied.

“No, see, that still doesn’t give me a reason as to why you need someone to be with you.”

“Moral support. I don’t want to be alone, what if I see another… ghost?” Lance whispered the last part.

Keith cursed his amazing hearing. He didn’t want to hear any of this.

“There’s another guy here, could have used him.”

“Just shut up and wait.”

Keith heard another shower a few stalls down start. He gulped, turning the water off and then grabbing a towel, deciding to change in the wet stall. The pants were a good fit but the shirt was a bit big. To add insult to injury, the clothes were wet, too.The things he does for Lance, this boy should really learn to appreciate him. He used the towel to cover his head and he looked down, quickly walking out of the showers and the bathroom before they could call him out or notice him.

Now, how should he introduce himself again? Hide somewhere and then jump out? Lie seductively on his bed? Decisions, decisions. He accidentally walked into someone, towel slipping off.

“Oh, sorry.” He mumbled.

“It is okay.” A girl told him. Damn, he bumped into some poor girl. “We sometimes get so deep in thought we don’t know what’s ahead.” She smiled.

“Yeah.” Keith cleared his throat.

“I am Shay, what is your name?” The girl stuck her hand out.

“Keith.” He replied, shaking her hand.

“Not the best way to meet someone. But it was nice.” She said before curtsying and then walking away.

What was he thinking of again?

“You! I thought you left!” He heard Lance gasp from behind.

“What? How did you know it was me?” Keith turned around in shock.

“I can recognize that mullet anywhere.” Lance replied, proud of himself.

Keith ran a hand through his hair. He picked the towel up and swung it over his shoulder. There goes the dramatic introduction.

“You shower fast.” Keith noticed.

“How did you know I was in the shower?”

“You have a towel around your neck and your hair is wet, it’s not hard to figure out.” Keith replied.

“So is yours.” Lance said. “Wait a second…” Realization dawned on him.

“I have somewhere to go that isn’t here, bye.” Keith began to walk away quickly. That was embarrassing. Yet, why was he smiling?

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who noticed, yes I did intentionally have Hunk say the wrong ability.


	5. They Linger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance finds some things out and Keith almost has a heart attack, discovering yet another ability.

-

“Hurry it up, Swirn!” Someone yelled angrily from outside Pidge’s room.

“I don’t like running.” Another someone whined in response.

“I wrote a chart here on how many times each of us has exercised and out of all of us, Plaxum has visited the gym many more times than we have combined.”

“You can run fast on your own, you don’t even need to exercise. Swirn, on the other hand…” Plaxum said. The rest Pidge couldn’t hear because they covered their ears with their pillow.

“Not in the mood for this shit.” They grumbled, rolling over to check the time. 11 am?! They overslept! Why didn’t Lance or Hunk say anything? Pidge shot out of bed and then stopped, remembering why. Lance had asked them to go with them to the showers but they declined and went back to sleep. Damn it. Should have asked him to come back.

“Guys, Allura has asked us multiple times not to yell in the halls.”

“Oh please, Florina. You always act like such an angel and it’s annoying, sometimes.” Plaxum said. Pidge slammed the door open, making everyone in the group jump except for one.

“Pidge!” Said the one who didn’t jump. “How wonderful to-”

“Leave him alone, BF.” Plaxum interrupted him. “Sorry to bother you.” She covered his mouth and dragged him back. “We’ll be going back to our rooms, now.”

“This is what happens when you yell and run in the halls.” Swirn shook his head.

Pidge went to the cafeteria, deciding to get something to eat since they were hungry.

“Here guys, I made this myself.” They saw Hunk serving some dish to Lance and Keith. Talk about timing.

“They actually let you in the kitchen?” Lance asked.

“Yeah. They considered it volunteer work. It’s great.” Hunk sat down next to him.

“What is this?” Keith inspected it with his fork. Pidge silently made their way over and sat down next to Keith without saying anything.

“You look miserable.” Hunk said, noticing them immediately.

“Thanks.”

“This is amazing.” Lance gushed once he took a bite. “I love a man who can cook.” He said, clasping his hands together and staring lovingly at him.

“No big deal.” Hunk shrugged like it was nothing.

Keith took a small bite and made an approving ‘hm’ noise once he tasted it. He began to devour it like an animal. Pidge watched with complete and utter disgust.

“What was this?” Lance asked once he finished.

“A magician never reveals his secrets.” Hunk winked. Pidge’s stomach grumbled.

"It's just pancakes." Keith shrugged, trying to sound unimpressed.

“Excuse me, I’m going to get some cereal or something.” They got up.

“No, wait, allow me.” Hunk volunteered, heading back into the kitchen.

Pidge sat back down and leaned tiredly on Keith’s shoulder. They then sat back up, finally realizing the fact that Keith was here. “What? Didn’t you leave?”

“I can still visit.” Keith replied.

“Oh.” Pidge said.

“Welp, I have places to be. Things to do. Later, haters. Tell Hunk I love him.” Lance got up and left the cafeteria.

“Weird.” Keith muttered.

“No kidding.” Pidge sighed.

“Here you go.” Hunk set a dish of some delicious-looking food in front of Pidge. “Where’s Lance?”

“He left. He said he hates you, by the way.” Keith said with a smile before getting up and leaving. Hunk just fake laughed.

“Yeah, haha, I doubt that!” He called out after him.

Pidge happily tore into the food, sour mood dissolving almost immediately.

-

Lance grabbed a hoodie from the closet in his room. There was something in the pocket. He pulled it out and saw that it was a pocket knife with the name Keith carved into it. He threw it in a drawer by his bed and inspected the jacket for anything else. “He won’t miss this.” He said before putting it on and pulling the hood up. He left the orphanage and began to head to the library. He wanted to use a computer without the worry of wandering eyes. As he walked there, he wondered which of the people he saw along the way were dead.

He walked in and went over to the computer area, grabbing one of the empty ones on the farthest corner and pulling up the browser. “What should I look up?” He asked himself quietly.

 _‘Look up your parent’s names.’_ He heard a voice whisper into his ear. He looked around frantically to see if anyone or any ghost was there but he saw nothing. He decided what the heck and typed the names in. Records of the crash came in and he began clicking multiple articles. There were even some pictures of the crash but none of it brought back memories. He still didn’t remember much. He sighed as he began to scroll through another article and sat up straight when he saw that his sister was another survivor. Why didn’t Shiro mention this?

He observed the picture of her for a few minutes before going back and looking to see if anything gave an address on where they were buried or burned or whatever it was that happened to their bodies. He needed to speak to them.

One particular article caught his interest.

“There was an investigation for suspected foul play, a witness who had almost collided with the oncoming collision had said that it seemed like the opposing car had crashed into the van intentionally…

The investigation was closed after no new information came up.”

Beneath it was talk of a burial for his parents that he never got to attend. The cemetery was ten miles from here. Lance looked around for something and grabbed a nearby sticky note and borrowed a pen from the front desk, scribbling the address down. He shoved the sticky note in his pocket, exit the browser and turned the computer off, then quickly left the library.

He went to the nearest bus stop and sat down, waiting.

 _‘Please find him.’_ He suddenly heard. He looked around. _‘Find him. He did this.’_

Who?!

The bus arrived and he quickly got on, dropping a few quarters in the box and then taking a seat in the middle.

_‘You’re on the right track.’_

Thanks, mysterious voice. Lance thought sarcastically.

The bus stopped and he ran off, looking around for the cemetery. He looked at the sticky note and ran down a few corners before he found it. He walked inside carefully and looked around, trying to see if he could find his parents.

“Psst, hey kid.” He turned and saw some lanky guy sitting on top of one of the tombstones. “Are you an idiot?”

“No, I think of myself as someone very smart, no thanks to you.” Lance scoffed.

“Do you not know what the hell the people here are going to do to you when they see that you’re a link?” The ghost spat on the floor. Lance looked at it, disgusted.

“Explain that to me.” He said. “Some other guy said I was a link but he never specified.”

“The link. The link between our worlds. I can’t say more because I’m bound by the rules, but,” The ghost jumped off the tombstone. “I’d get out of here while I still can.” He put a hand on Lance’s shoulder.

“Not until I find what I came here for.” Lance shrugged him off, backing up.

“What are you searching for?”

“My parent’s bodies, I’m hoping they’re lingering around here too. Wishful thinking, if you will.” Lance turned away from him.

“Oh, how cute.” The ghost laughed loudly. “No, kid, they ONLY linger where they died. I can’t say why, because again, I’m bound by the rules. But I’ll just say I died here. And so did a lot of other people here. Some of us go way back to when doctors were horrible and people would end up getting buried alive after being wrongly pronounced dead. And I highly doubt your parents were among us, considering your age.”

“That’s horrible.” Lance shuttered. He couldn’t imagine that last thing. "I came here for nothing after all.” Lance groaned, facepalming.

“Whatever.” The ghost sounded impatient. “Now get out, before they see you.”

Lance began to leave but something grabbed his foot. He saw a hand sticking out of the floor and he screamed at the top of his lungs, trying to pull away. He succeeded, the arm coming off and staying latched to his ankle. He freaked out, trying to shake it off but he fell over in the process. A bunch of arms reached out of the ground and grabbed him, trying to drag him down. “Help me!” He screamed at the man who was just watching.

“I tried to warn you.” He shook his head, disappearing suddenly.

“No, no, no, no!” Lance squirmed, trying desperately to escape the hands that kept hold in a firm grip but he couldn’t. He felt himself slowly sinking into the ground. Once the dirt covered his vision, he woke up on the floor of the cemetery, clear view of the sky. “What the fuck?” He sat up, taking deep breaths and feeling himself to make sure nothing was missing. He checked his ankle and was relieved to find no detached hand on it.

“You were just in the other world.” The ghost reappeared behind him.

“Excuse me?”

“Fuck kind of connection are you? Doesn't know what any of this means, amateur. You don't deserve the title." He paused. "You know, you were actually going to die back there but something protected you.” The ghost looked incredibly bored. “Kudos to you.” He clapped.

“I’m getting the fuck out of here. Thanks for freaking me the fuck out.” Lance quickly began to leave.

“Nice meeting you!” The ghost called out before laughing loudly and maniacally. Lance ignored him, breaking into a full sprint. He made it back to the bus stop and gasped for air, trying to process what just happened.

He needed to go back to the library and find the crash site. Number one priority. One website is bound to at least give the freeway away.

Once back at the library, he immediately began doing the research again. Literally nothing gave away the name of the freeway and he was getting frustrated until he heard those whispers again.

_‘The picture. Look at the pictures.’_

But they were constant this time and Lance said out loud “Okay! I’m looking at them!”

“I’m going to kick you out again.” He heard the librarian warn him.

“Sorry.” He said before going back to the article. He observed one of the pictures of the crash and just sighed. _‘Nothing.’_ He was about to give up when he suddenly noticed something in the corner. It was the sign. He zoomed in on it and was overjoyed to see that it read ‘Rosemond 30 miles.’

Right outside the city. Barely.

First thing’s first, though.

-

“There you are!” Keith crossed his arms. “Why the hell did you take my jacket without-” He stopped when Lance silently took it off and just handed it to him.

“Your knife’s in the top drawer in the dresser by my bed.” Lance said quickly before walking away. Keith just stared at him in confusion.

“Why didn’t you tell me about my sister?” Lance asked once he charged into Shiro’s office. He was just sitting there, looking at something on his computer.

“Uh, what?” He asked.

“My sister. I did some research today,” Lance slammed his hand down on the desk. “And my sister is something that was never mentioned to me.”

“I thought you already did research before you even came here?” Shiro looked around, confusion clear on his face.

“No, you see, this was different. You’re useless, I asked you to find my family and you didn’t!”

“I did.”

“But you didn’t tell me anything, I had to get it out of you.”

Shiro was silent.

“You’re mostly helping Pidge and Keith, what about me? You didn’t do much for me. I had no choice but to take matters into my own hands. And I’m going to continue to do so.”

“Lance. Your sister left the country. That’s why I didn’t tell you at first, I wanted to wait until I at least had _some_ good news.”

Lance shook his head. “No, she wouldn’t just leave me like that. She’d tell me, wouldn’t she?” He couldn't even remember what kind of person his sister was. It felt like everything was slipping away from him. Seriously, what the hell is going on?

“I’m sorry. She did, Lance. She did tell me to give you her love, though.”

Lance laughed bitterly. “Why? Where’s the love in that?” His eyes watered and he quickly wiped them but they just got blurry all over again.

“I should have told you sooner, yes. It wasn’t right of me to keep this from you. And yes, I have been helping those two more frequently. I promise it’s not favoritism, we’ve just never gotten this many requests-” He stopped when he saw Lance just staring at the ground, desperately fighting some tears back. He slowly stood up and pulled him in for a hug, which Lance didn’t return at first.

“I’m not crying.” He sobbed.

“I know.” Shiro said.

“It’s so unfair.” Lance cried. “Why is everything so confusing?”

-

Lance was lying on his bed later that night, staring at the ceiling.

 _‘I need answers. Why can’t I remember?’_ He decided that he was going to find a way to earn some money and leave. He’d speak to his parents and find out what the hell is going on, see if they know what it means to be a ‘connection' or a link'. But then what? Oh well, he'll worry about it later.

-

“Good morning, beautiful.” Lance told Allura when he entered her office the next day. “Is there anything I could do around here for money?” He asked, winking.

“Lance, you better not be hinting at selling your-”

“Oh, God no. Unless that’s what you’re into.” He did the finger guns.

“If you’re looking for real work, you could ask Coran. He takes care of things around here, he might have a job.” Allura said.

“Thank you so much.” Lance said. He blew a kiss before leaving, earning a sigh.

 -

Hunk and Pidge watched Lance paint over where the younger kids drew on the walls in the hallway.

“I should probably take Lance’s example and start doing work.” Hunk told Pidge.

“I mean I guess if you’re stuck here forever then sure.” Pidge replied.

“Do you think they could hire me in the kitchen? I’ve been making so many good dishes in there with what we have.” Hunk salivated at the thought of what dinner had in store.

“Wouldn’t hurt to ask.” Pidge shrugged.

“I’ll do that tonight.” Hunk said.

“Excellent idea, we could always use more full-time cooks.” Coran suddenly appeared behind them, making Pidge gasp out loud and then cling to Hunk.

“Didn’t mean to startle you, just couldn’t help but overhear.” Coran said when he saw how fearful Pidge was. Pidge just glared in response.

“Do you really think they’d hire me?” Hunk asked.

“Think? I know they would!” Coran said.

“Awesome.”

“Coran, I’m done. How much do I get?” Lance walked up to him.

“Not so fast, let me check it out for myself.” Coran lifted a finger at him and went out to inspect each spot carefully.

Hunk, Pidge, and Lance all watched him. Lance more intensely than the rest.

“Excellent, you can’t even tell where it was painted. Now, there’s some areas outside that could use some paint as well. Come with me, I’ll show you.” Coran began to lead Lance outside, who looked back at Hunk and Pidge for a second with a look that just screamed ‘God help me’.

“Do you ever wonder what others must be thinking?” Hunk suddenly asked. “I wish I could read minds. Then I could know what someone is thinking and just be able to help them without the struggle of trying to get it out of them.”

“That’s… out of fucking nowhere.” Pidge said.

“Language!” Allura yelled from somewhere.

“Damn- dang it.” Pidge quickly corrected what they were going to say originally.

“There’s obviously something wrong with Lance.” Hunk said, a look of concern on his face.

“Well you heard him before, his parents are dead. And the only reason he came here was for them. He probably doesn’t know what to do with himself. For all we know he’s probably getting money to get out of here. And I don’t blame him.” Pidge said, getting concerned as well. _‘I should stop worrying so much about him, I came here for my family, too. I can’t get side tracked.’_ They thought to themselves when they realized that they didn’t want him to leave. What would they care? They’re leaving soon, too anyway. 

-

“Uh, Shiro?” Keith called out from the kitchen downstairs. Shiro was in his room, changing.

“Yeah?” He responded once he was finished. He felt bad for making the kid wait until he was done because he kept calling him until he finally got a response.

“Why is there an ax in your kitchen?”

Shiro silently went downstairs and found him holding it in confusion. He took it from him and put it in the highest cabinet. “It was for a tree in the backyard and I decided to keep it in case of intruders or something. You never know when you’ll need it.” He answered.

“Wait, you have a backyard?” Keith asked. "And what if the intruder has a gun? What would the ax do, then?" 

“Yeah but it’s pretty small.” Shiro gestured to the small door in the corner of the kitchen. Keith was surprised he didn’t see it before. “One small tree took up most of the room so that should give you an idea on how big it is.” Shiro looked at him. “And we wouldn't need to worry about the gun because the ax will get the job done before he can even pull it out. How did you find it?”

“It fell out when I was trying to grab something, I’m lucky it didn’t land on my head.” Keith replied, looking slightly embarrassed.

“What is it?” Shiro asked.

“Nothing. I’m going to go to the laundromat. Do you have some change?”

“Oh, sure.” Shiro gave him a few quarters and Keith went upstairs. “There should be a poster in there explaining how to use it.”

“I know how to do laundry.” Keith replied, rolling his eyes. Once he gathered his clothes, he left the apartment and began to head there. He shivered when he saw the creepy hallway but slowly made his way in, finding the laundry room quiet easily. There was a huge window giving a good view of what’s inside and the door was right beside it.

The AC hit him right away once he stepped foot inside and the radio blared some station Keith's never heard of.

_‘There is someone. Walking behind you.’_

The song from Final Destination 3? Creepy. Keith shivered again once he began putting clothes into the washer. He carefully followed the instructions and leaned on the wall nearby, just waiting.

_‘Turn around. Look at me.’_

_‘There is someone. Watching your footsteps.’_

Keith felt dread overcome him out of nowhere. It was like he was legit being watched. He turned to look at the washer and nearly died when he saw someone standing right outside the window, staring directly at him. The stranger just shook his head. He was wearing a black trench coat and smoking a cigarette. Keith couldn’t get a good look at his face, though.

Keith tried to ignore him and went back to watching the dryer. Washer? He couldn’t think straight.

_‘There is someone. Says they love you.’_

The stranger knocked and Keith looked back at him, terrified at this point.

_‘Here’s my heart. In my hand.’_

_‘Turn around. Look at me. Understand.’_

The stranger formed his hands into a heart and Keith could make out a twisted grin on the stranger’s face. Keith looked back at the washer quickly and realized he couldn’t see his reflection. His eyes widened in confusion and he looked down at his hands, dismayed to find that he couldn’t see them at all. He was completely invisible, save for his clothes. Was he just a walking pair of clothes? He glanced back at the window and saw no one there.

The stranger probably thought it was just funny to see a pair of floating clothes and then he just laughed, right? Right?

Yeah, he didn't believe it either.

-


	6. Kinda, Sorta, Not Really

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some tomfoolery and a small time skip. Things are actually starting to happen now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took a while because even though I already know what's going to happen and how this story will end, I kinda had a hard time trying to figure out how to put it all together. Lol. I got it though, regular updates once a week return.

-

“Another twenty dollars!” Lance cheered. He was covered in dirt from pulling some weeds out and he was proud of himself. He put the money in his pillowcase.

“You smell like a sewer.” Pidge said with disgust, wrinkling their nose.

“Yeah, I need a shower.” Lance said, tearing up with disgust. “I’ll be right back.” He left the room.

“I’m happy for him.” Hunk said. “He seems happier, now.”

“I’m telling you, he’s planning on leaving.” Pidge sighed.

“Maybe we can convince him to stay?” Hunk said.

“There’s no way.”

“No, like, maybe if we help him with his family issues he’ll end up realizing how awesome we, his friends, are and not want to leave?”

“I’m leaving, too one day.” Pidge told him.

“Oh, right.” Hunk didn’t sound convinced. Pidge felt irritated.

“I am!” They snapped.

“Yeah, I believe you.”

“I fucking hate how-”

“LANGUAGE!” Someone that wasn’t Allura or Shiro screamed.

“Who the hell was that?” Pidge peaked outside their room and saw Swirn standing right there.

“I did them a favor.” He said, sounding proud of himself.

“Okay.” Pidge closed the door.

“Anyway, what do you think of my plan?” Hunk asked.

“Well, I think it’s something that only Lance can come to terms with.” Pidge shrugged.

“He doesn’t have to do it alone.”

Pidge was quiet. Maybe he was right, not just about Lance.

-

“I’m so sore.” Keith grumbled when he and Shiro came to the orphanage.

“I said I wasn’t going easy on you.” Shiro shook his head, laughing for a bit.

“What in the hell?” Lance overheard. He quickly ran to his room, hoping to find Hunk. “Hunk, you will never guess what I just heard.”

“Make it quick, the cook is going to teach me how to make donuts in a few minutes.” Hunk giggled, salivating while staring off in the distance, extremely happy with the thought.

“Keith and Shiro are banging!” Lance yelled. Pidge spit out some water that they were drinking.

“No way.”

“Yeah Keith said he was sore and Shiro said he didn’t go easy.”

“Uh, okay, let me just clarify something. Isn’t that extremely illegal?” Hunk asked.

“Is what illegal?” Keith suddenly asked, standing at the entrance to the room.

“You guys are revolting.” Pidge said.

“Lance said he-” Lance covered Hunk’s mouth.

“I didn’t know you were into men.” Lance said, ignoring Hunk’s muffled protests.

“Everyone but you did.” Pidge said.

“Where the hell did that come from?” Keith asked, flustered.

“I know your dirty little secret.” Lance smirked. Keith’s mouth dropped.

“I-I- How?”

“Let’s just say, the dead can see things.” Lance crossed his arms.

“What?” Hunk said. Pidge was confused as well.

“What did they see?” Keith asked, voice slightly high-pitched.

“The sinful act you and,” Lance looked around and leaned in close, whispering this part. “Shiro committed.”

“Wait, what?” Keith stumbled back to the hall.

“Ah huh! My ghostly scouts never lie.” Lance laughed evilly.

“W-What act d-did w-we-” Keith was beyond confused and flustered. He started digging through old memories, trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about.

“Okay, this has gone on long enough.” Pidge sighed. “Lance just overheard what you two said when you walked in and he decided to mess around.”

Keith just gave Lance the nastiest look he could muster. Lance shrugged, his hands lifting in surrender.

“I guess it could have been taken out of context.” Keith said after five minutes of awkward silence.

“I’m going to the kitchen, now.” Hunk left, obviously wanting to get out of this atmosphere. Pidge sighed sadly, knowing they had no escape. Wait, maybe they did. They got up and quickly left, going to Shiro’s office.

“How much longer is this going to take?” They asked once they were inside.

“We talked about this.” Shiro said.

“I just… I’m starting to actually _care_ about the people here.” Pidge said in horror. “If this keeps up, I’ll end up sad when I leave.”

“It’s good to have friends.” Shiro smiled. “You could always tell them…” He began.

“No, just, whatever. Call me in as soon as anything else happens.” Pidge left quickly.

 _‘I don’t have to tell them anything.’_ They thought.

“He doesn’t have to do it alone.”

Maybe? Just maybe.

-

“Since you’re such a weirdo, I was talking about the fighting lessons Shiro gave me earlier. He taught me some basic self-defense moves.” Keith went back in the room, closing the door behind him. An evil smile on his face suddenly. “Why don’t I show you?”

“Bring it on.” Lance said.

Keith stepped toward him but slipped on some water, (Damn it, Pidge!), and fell on top of Lance. They were both lying on the floor, Keith on top of Lance. They both looked at each other in horror.

“I thought you said self-defense, not cliché movie trope moves.” Lance said, waiting for a shock to come any second now.

“I want to die.” Keith muttered.

“You know, I’m surprised you’re not shocking me.” Lance was relieved.

“It’s a defense thing. My body does it when it feels threatened.” Keith’s cheeks were slightly red.

“You talk about your body as if it’s… a separate being from you.” Lance said. “Get off me.”

“Okay.” Keith didn’t move. Lance didn’t move either. They both silently observed each other again, eyes glancing at each other’s lips. The next thing Lance knew, he leaned in and kissed him. There’s the shock. Lance threw him off.

“Okay, fuck. Fuck that, forget it!” Lance groaned, getting up. “What the hell was that?!” He yelled, asking himself mostly.

“You just did it out of nowhere how else was I supposed to react?! I thought you hated me!” Keith yelled in response.

“You guys better stop YELLIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNG!!!” Swirn screeched outside.

“What did I walk into?” Pidge asked.

“What did you see?” Keith asked.

“I saw you guys kiss then there was confused screaming.” Pidge replied.

“I don’t know why I did that, I should have known better. You’re so complicated!” Lance hugged himself, feeling violated for some reason.

“Whatever.” Keith left the room.

“You’re both so emotional.” Pidge shook their head.

“This wouldn’t have happened if you cleaned your nasty ass spit.” Lance said.

“Don’t blame me for your sexual tension.” Pidge rolled their eyes.

-

“I want to go home.” Keith told Shiro.

“Why?” Shiro asked.

“I just want to leave.” Keith said.

“Are you sure it’s okay to go alone? Considering what happened the other day…”

Keith shuttered remembering that weird stranger. Who the hell even was that?

“Can’t we just have another session? I’m sick of shocking everyone whenever my brain thinks there’s any type of threat.” He suggested. Shiro tapped his desk for a second, thinking.

“Alright. Just give me another hour.”

Keith left the room and bumped into some tall guy in a big black jacket. He was wearing all black and it seemed a bit dramatic.

“Excuse me.” The man said. Keith looked at him angrily, about to tell him off but he paused. This guy’s eyes were yellow. “Where is Allura?” He asked. Keith silently pointed to the door next to Shiro’s office. “Thank you.” He patted Keith’s head and paused for a second. “Huh.” He smiled before heading in the direction Keith pointed.

“What the…?” Keith stared at the door after it closed behind him, feeling his head where it was patted.

-

“Who the hell do you think you are? Get out of here!” Allura pointed to the door.

“Just think about it.” The man said.

“I will not. It’s thanks to you that my father is- Just get out! You’re not allowed back here!” She yelled at him.

“Is this any way to treat your uncle?” The man said.

“You are no family of mine, Zarkon.” Allura snapped.

“You call that idiot with the orange hair, what’s his name? Qur’an? You call him your uncle but not me?”

“Again, you are _no_ family of mine. Now get out before I call the police.” Allura said again.

“And again, I say think about it.” Zarkon tipped his hat before leaving.

Allura collapsed in her chair once he was gone, feeling emotionally wounded. Why now? Of all the time in the world it just had to be now.

-

“How was I supposed to react? I thought he hated me. It was so out of nowhere.” Keith told Shiro about what had happened.

“You messed up.” Shiro said. He was sitting on the grass, leaning against a tree. They were at their usual spot at the park.

“I know I did.” Keith sighed. “I just want to die.”

“Hey, you don’t mean that. We all have our moments. Just apologize to him later.”

“Yeah, like you’d understand.” Keith crossed his arms grumpily.

“Keith, I was a teenager once, too.”

“What were you like?” Keith asked.

“What was I like?” Shiro asked dramatically. Keith just stared at him. “I was like you, awkward and impulsive sometimes.”

“I’m neither of those things.” Keith protested, sitting down in front of him.

“Let’s talk about yesterday.” Shiro suddenly said. “You didn’t tell me much other than some guy was staring at you.”

“That’s all that happened.” Keith shrugged.

Shiro thought about the stranger that was watching them once at the park. Could it be the same guy?

“Did he look like anyone you’ve seen before?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t get a good look at his face other than some creepy as hell smile. I was so scared, it’s weird. Like his stare just made me so much more scared than necessary. And I kind of… vanished.”

“Vanished?”

“I turned invisible. But just me, not my clothes.”

“I thought something like that might happen.” Shiro said.

“Now let’s talk about you.” Keith said quickly. “From now on, in exchange for info about me, you have to give me something about you.”

“Fair enough. It’s a deal.” Shiro reached his hand out to seal the deal but Keith just stared, unsure of what to do with it. Shiro just sighed and put his hand back down. “Sooner or later we have to address the situation about that stranger. Someone was watching us once before.”

“It’s just a coincidence. How would he have found out where we are?” Keith asked, looking a little scared.

“You’re probably right.” Shiro decided to drop it for now, he didn’t want to make him paranoid. “Since you decided to tell me about that, here’s my info. I was born on February twenty-ninth.”

“What? You mean you’re, like, six?” Keith gasped.

“I’ve had six real birthdays, yes.” Shiro was starting to regret telling him.

“You’re literally a baby. You’re younger than me!” Keith said.

“Okay, both of those things are false. I’ve still been alive for many more years than you have.” Shiro was annoyed.

“Sorry, I’ll stop now.” Keith said. Then he pretended to be sad. “I just… only six birthday parties?”

“Keith.”

“Now I’m done.”

-

A week had passed and Lance decided that he’d earned more than enough money to leave. He could call an uber to take him places and then maybe stay a few nights at a motel nearby. Hopefully they don’t ask for ID.

Keith had learned more fighting moves from Shiro. He hadn’t seen the stranger again although sometimes he would feel like he was being watched whenever he’d walk anywhere. He mostly shrugged it off as paranoia. Thanks to Shiro, he wouldn’t have to worry about defending himself.

Pidge had finally gotten word from Shiro that they have a set date on when they’re leaving. The investigator said that they’d be taking a break from experiments to give some of the employees days off, meaning they’d be understaffed. A perfect opportunity to break in and get what they need.

Hunk was going between cooking and learning new recipes while also trying to keep up with his friends. He just wanted to help but it’s hard when everyone just loves keeping secrets. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t have any but he’d be damned if one day they all just stopped talking to each other.

-

“Keith, are you sure you can handle being home alone? You know you could stay at the orphanage…” Shiro asked. Today was the day he was going to help Pidge get their family back. Unfortunately, that also meant digging up some old skeletons of his own.

“I’m not a child, I can handle myself.” Keith replied grumpily. He was sitting on the couch and crossing his arms.

“Alright but please do some laundry, you haven’t washed your clothes in a week.” Shiro said. He ruffled Keith’s hair before leaving.

-

“Hey, Lance. I heard Pidge and Shiro are gonna be gone for a couple days, want to go snoop and find out?” Hunk asked his friend. He was hoping to spark up some conversation that would last more than five minutes.

“Not really, I have my own business to attend to.” Lance said, not even looking at him.

“Oh, really? I could help you.” Hunk suggested.

“This is something I need to do myself.” Lance said.

“I know you’re planning on running away. It’s obvious.” Hunk suddenly said. Lance finally looked at him.

“What?”

“This money you have collected, the fact that you’re packing some things. Can you make it any more obvious?”

“You can’t blame me, I came here to find my family and now that I know the truth there’s no reason to stay here.” Lance said.

“You’re wrong. You have friends, you have Allura, there is no reason to go through this alone. We all just want to help you. _I_ want to help you. Please, Lance. Let me in.” Hunk put a hand on his shoulder.

Lance went quiet, thinking his options over. Did he really want to leave forever? No more Pidge, no more Hunk, no more Keith. He’d be struggling to find a place to stay. And where would he get more money once he ran out of what he had now?

“I could help you. If you want, we could try and get Allura to help us, too.” Hunk spoke again.

“No, I have to keep my manly image up in front of her.” Lance joked. “Fine, you can come with me. But we can’t tell anyone, I don’t think Allura would approve of what I’m going to do.”

“What are you going to do?” Hunk asked.

“Well, sit down, because this kind of requires a really long backstory to it.”

-

“Do I get a gun?” Pidge asked Shiro once they were on the road.

“No.”

“Do I get a knife at least?”

“No. You don’t need that when you have such a strong weapon already.”

“What?”

“Your mind.” Shiro had an appalled look on his face, in disbelief that the other forgot about their own capabilities.

“Oh, yeah. I haven’t done anything with it in forever.” Pidge leaned back in their chair.

“I know about some of the things you can do. Pretty remarkable.” Shiro whistled.

“Thanks. Can we drive faster?” Pidge asked, observing the speed he was going.

“The speed limit is sixty-five.”

“But there are no cops we can go faster.”

“Not taking the risk, what if I just so happen to be the one unlucky bastard who gets pulled over?” Shiro shook his head. “Just relax, we’ll be there soon. Even if they aren’t there, we can still find out where they are or at least what happened. Closure is good.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Pidge crossed their arms.

-

Keith had gathered all his clothes and stood at the door, still unsure of going to the laundry room.

‘Come on, you can defend yourself. You have unlimited potential.’ He remembered what Shiro told him. If he could really think about what emotion triggers what skill, it might just happen. It’s succeeded multiple times, he managed to shock Shiro on purpose whenever they sparred. He also summoned a small thunderstorm above himself just to get a laugh.

‘Just go, don’t be a loser.’ Yes, if he sees the stranger again he’ll just kill him. Or beat him within an inch of his life. He finally left. Making his way down the creepy hallway and entering the laundry room, he felt relieved when he saw no one. The radio was also playing a really good song, nothing from Final Destination.

Once the clothes were done washing, he began to gather them and the radio went silent. Weird.

_‘There is someone. Walking behind you.’_

‘You have got to be fucking kidding me.’ Keith whipped his head around to look to the window but saw no one there.

The song immediately changed back to whatever was playing before.

Keith went back to transferring his clothes to the dryer and gulped.

‘You are better than him. You will destroy him.’

_‘I see trees of green. Red roses, too.’_

He heard the door suddenly open.

_‘I see them bloom. For me and you.’_

He resisted the urge to turn around as he started the dryer. A shiver went up his spine and he felt himself sweat nervously, the fear almost unbearable at this point.

‘You are better than this, you are better than this, you are better than this,’

_‘And I think to myself. What a wonderful world.’_

Footsteps approached and he jerked around, getting into a fighting stance but stopping when he saw that it was just an elderly woman.

‘Damn it, stop being so paranoid.’

He swallowed down some nausea and went back to watching the dryer.

_‘I see skies of blue. And clouds of white.’_

“Looking for me?” He suddenly heard a voice so close to his ear whisper. He violently turned and punched wildly but gasped when he saw there was nothing. The elderly woman stared at him like he was crazy. Maybe he was.

_‘The bright blessed day. The dark sacred night.’_

‘I have to get out here.’ He forced the dryer open before it was done and grabbed his clothes, speed walking the hell out of there. He made it back to the apartment and threw his clothes on the couch, taking a moment to gather his breath and calm himself down.

‘I’m better than this! Why am I having a panic attack over this?’

A sudden knock at the door jolted him out of his thoughts. He stared at it cautiously. Maybe it was the old woman coming to see if he was okay?

Another knock made him swallow, slowly going over to the door and glancing through the peephole. He was mortified to see an eye staring right back. He jumped back and the door was getting banged on, now. The doorknob was shaking violently and he stepped even more back, heart beating fast. He looked down at his hands and noticed they were slowly fading.

It suddenly went quiet, the front door no longer being pounded on. Keith was about to relax but the door suddenly shot open, the stranger from a week ago standing right there. He was wearing the exact same outfit, too.

‘Is this real? This has to be a nightmare.’

“Hello, Keith.” The man grinned, making his way inside and gently, yes gently, closing the door behind him. “It’s about time we had a well over-due chat.”

-

“You know, I still think we should at least alert Allura about this.” Hunk told Lance as they began to sneak out of the orphanage that night. “She might see us missing and begin to panic or something.”

“We’ll be back before she even knows we’re gone.” Lance lied. He had already called an uber and they were heading to the location they told him to meet them at.

“But she’ll understand if you explain it to her the way you did with me. Although, the link stuff is still confusing to me.”

“You and me both.” Lance said. Once inside the uber, Lance told him to get to the highway and stop at the sign where it said the town was 30 miles back.

“May I ask why?” The driver said.

“Nope.” Lance leaned back in his seat. “Might as well get comfy.”

“You guys are gifted, aren’t you?” The driver suddenly asked.

“Yep.” Hunk said.

“What can ya do, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“I honestly don’t even fucking know myself, my guy.” Lance replied.

“I can…” Hunk trailed off. Was now really the appropriate time? Not with a stranger around. “I can tell time without looking at the clock. More useful than it sounds, trust me.” The driver was silent.

“I wonder how Pidge and Shiro are doing. Do you think they found his family?” Hunk asked, hoping to change the subject. He looked out the window and observed the moon. It just shown bright, no stars in view around it. It looked alone. It was probably sad and confused. ‘Me, too buddy.’

“I hope so. At least someone can say they did.” Lance sighed.

“Do you think Keith is angsting alone in his room?” Hunk suddenly joked.

“Probably.” Lance snickered. He then frowned. They hadn’t really talked much since the kiss. He kinda, sorta, not really missed him.

-


	7. Daniel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance talks to his ghost mom, Pidge runs away, Shiro reflects on his past, and Keith is royally fucked.

-

“You made the choice of staying here alone, despite knowing I was still around.” This strange man said. “You wanted me to come.” He smirked.

 “What do you want?” Keith finally said after a few moments of silence. “Why are you stalking me?”

“I like how you’re turning invisible again. Very cute.”

“Answer me.” Keith grit his teeth. “Or I’ll kill you.”

“Will you?”

“I’m sick of you stalking me! I just want answers and if you can’t give me any I’ll just get rid of you.” Keith eyed the vase by his TV, planning on using it in case things get ugly.

“Look, I’m here to help you.” The man pointed to the couch. “Have a seat, relax, we’ll have a nice conversation like civilized men.”

“Civilized?! You broke into my house!” Keith protested.

“Well it’s technically not even your house, it’s Shiro’s. That was so kind of him, taking someone like you under his wing. Unfortunately, what he’s doing isn’t going to work.”

“Can you just tell me what the hell you’re following me for?” Keith felt even more creeped. Not only was this guy stalking him, he also knew about his plans. He was starting to regret being home alone.

“Do I not look familiar to you at all? My name, Daniel, does that ring any bells?”

Keith thought about it. “Nope, nothing.”

“If only you inherited good memory.” Daniel sighed. “I was a friend of your dad’s.”

“I never even met my dad.” Keith didn’t feel like going down this road right now. “Nothing came out of this so I’m going to give you ten seconds to get out or else.”

“You never even let me finish. You have met him, but you were very young. He was a good man, he left to protect you.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that before.” Keith rolled his eyes.

“Do you know what he was protecting you from?”

Keith didn’t say anything, he just grabbed the vase and threw it at Daniel, who dodged it by stepping to the side. Keith swung a punch but Daniel caught it easily. Keith tried to pull away but it wouldn’t budge.

“This doesn’t make sense; your arm should be detached from your body!” Keith said, still trying to pull his hand free.

“He was trying to protect you from me.” Daniel said before quickly twisting his arm behind his back. He then kicked his feet out from under him, making him fall and slam his head against the corner of the coffee table. Keith tried to get back up but Daniel gripped him by his hair and slammed his head back onto the corner, knocking him out cold. “You’ll live.” He said before pulling out a stopwatch and starting a timer.

-

“Here, right here!” Lance jumped in his seat, frantically tapping the window. Hunk jolted awake from the outburst. The uber screeched to a halt and Lance jumped out, Hunk slowly after him. Lance practically shoved the money at the driver and waited for the car to leave before he began to look around.

“See anything, yet?” Hunk asked.

“No.” Lance sighed. “They’re supposed to be here, I don’t understand.”

“Maybe you missed something?” Hunk shrugged.

Lance sighed again. “Maybe I need to touch something.” He said.

“Yeah, let’s see if any of these books are actually a lever.” Hunk joked. Lance ignored it.

“Start touching everything.” Lance said.

“I’m not, uh, whatever you are. That won’t really help the situation.”

“Then why are you here?” Lance sounded frustrated.

“Moral support.” Hunk pat his shoulder. “What if they aren’t here? Would ghosts really lurk for that long with nothing to do? I’d imagine they get bored.”

“No, at the cemetery there were ghosts that have been around for hundreds of years.” Lance turned away and inspected the sign.

“Cemetery?” Hunk said. “You really got around the past week.” 

“Yeah, no kidding.” Lance poked the sign and sighed yet again. This was so frustrating. He turned to tell Hunk that it was time to call it a night but he wasn’t there. “Hunk?”

“Lance?” He suddenly heard a voice. He turned and saw his mother standing right there.

“Hunk, I found her!” He gasped, running to his mom and hugging her tight.

“He’s not here. I had to take you here in order to talk to you.” His mom said.

“Where’s here?” Lance asked.

“The other world.”

“Where’s dad?” Lance looked around.

“He moved on, but I stayed behind. I knew one day you’d come to us.” His mom smiled.

“Okay so, I have a lot of questions and-”

“I may not be able to answer some because of the rules but I will try my best.”

“The rules, yes, what are they? With the previous ghosts I’ve met they said there were rules and another crazy ghost tried to kill me with a chainsaw and-”

“Lance. What other ghosts?” His mom crossed her arms.

“Well, haha, uh, nevermind that.”

“What’s this about someone trying to kill you? I may be dead but I am still your mother and I do not approve of you going off on stupid whims of yours and-”

“Yeah, mom, I get it, but, I have no memory of anything. I thought we had a huge family but apparently, we don’t. My uncle and my sister have both abandoned me, what was I supposed to do?”

A look of horror was on his mom’s face for a second when she mentioned his uncle but it went away when he said that he had abandoned him.

“My uncle.” Lance noticed it. “Him, what about him?”

“Lance, I can’t, the rules…”

“Make an exception!”

“I can’t! Don’t you think I would if I could? The rules literally make it so you can’t say it. It just doesn’t come out.”

“So I came all the way out here for nothing?” Lance said.

“No. You got to see me again, at least.” His mother smiled sadly.

“What do I do?” Lance asked. “I don’t know what to do. I thought something useful would come out of this, too. Everyone’s abandoned me.” He felt like crying.

“I didn’t, Lance. I believed in you.” His mom reached out to hug him again. “Find your sister.”

“She fled the country.” Lance forced out.

“What?” His mom gasped. “If she was here I’d slap some sense into her. You know what, I just remembered something. How can I tell you this?” She started looking around and found a stray twig, picked it up, and drew something in the dirt.

“What about my uncle? He’s still here, I could talk to him.”

“NO!” His mom shouted. She pointed to what she drew on the ground. “This.”

“It’s a crudely drawn picture of a house.”

“The house.” His mom said.

“What house?”

“The house, Lance. The one with the family.” His mom sounded cautious as she said this. She was picking words.

“I already went there.” It clicked. “But I never went inside, I only caught a glimpse through the window.”

“Go there. I’m sure everything will come back to you when you see what’s in there.”

“But it was empty from what I saw.”

“Just go inside the house. Trust me. It is better this way than to see your uncle. Please, I am begging you and telling you as your mother, do not go to your uncle.” His mom pleaded. He sighed before finally nodding.

“I’ll go to the house.” He said.

“Thank you. I have to go now. I saw you, there is no reason to linger here any longer.”

“Wait, you mean, that’s it? I can’t see you ever again?” Lance said.

“Unfortunately, yes.” His mom said. She pulled him into a tight hug and Lance didn’t want to pull away. He’d go right back to being and feeling alone all over again.

“I love you.” He muttered.

“I love you, too.” She said before she was gone. He suddenly realized he was now lying on the ground. A group of people were surrounding him and he heard Hunk saying something.

“Guys, he doesn’t need an ambulance, he is just overwhelmed.” He heard.

“He’s waking up!” Someone said.

“What?” Hunk shoved his way in the circle of strangers. “Hey buddy, you okay?”

“Y-Y-”

“Don’t talk, the ambulance should be here soon.” A stranger gently sat him up.

“I said that wasn’t necessary.” Hunk said.

The house. Don’t talk to his uncle. Or talk to his uncle? No, house first. Why was this transition so painful, his head felt like it was going to explode.

“The house… I gotta…” Lance said weakly before closing his eyes to rest. He was so tired.

-

“Why can’t this pump work faster?” Pidge said. They were at a gas station, filling the car up.

Shiro didn’t respond. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to go back. Now that he was actually thinking about it, he realized he never really talked about his time there. He never really told anyone the details, either. Not even Allura. “Why don’t you go inside and find something to eat?” He gave Pidge a ten dollar bill. “Knock yourself out.” Pidge sighed before going inside.

He was among the other 24 people chosen to become super weapons. It was such a cliché movie plot, like the X-Men or something, he almost didn’t believe it was real at the time. But once they started injecting different things into him, he knew that it was anything but a silly movie. It was all really starting to come back to him.

None of the abilities he was given would stay for very long so they decided to plant something inside him manually. They sliced his arm off and started there. Oh god, and then the-

“Shiro?” Pidge interrupted his thoughts. He realized he was leaning on his car, panting and sweating. His eyes were wide when he glanced in the car mirror. He turned and threw up on the floor, right by the pump.

“You’re not ready for this.” Pidge suddenly said, rubbing his back.

“No, I’m fine, I’ll get over it, we just need to…”

“I was wrong to pressure you into this.”

“You didn’t pressure me into anything. I chose to do this. It’s time I confronted my past, anyway.” Shiro brushed them off and stumbled toward the driver’s seat.

“We can’t do it with you like this.” Pidge scolded him. “I know this is what I’ve been waiting for, but I can wait a little longer.” They smiled to reassure him.

“Pidge, I’m sorry.” Shiro said.

“It’s okay, I promise. Let’s just get back home and make sure you’re okay. Then we can get you a therapist if you’re really feeling like facing those demons.”

“Again, I’m sorry.” Shiro said.

“It’s okay.” Pidge said again. When Shiro went inside to find something to clean the ground, Pidge got his phone and found the investigator’s number.

‘Change of plans. Get to the orphanage in an hour.’

A few seconds later, a response.

‘On my way.’

Pidge deleted the messages so Shiro wouldn’t see it when he checked his phone. They quickly put it back where it was and smiled innocently when he returned.

-

“Hunk, we have to go. Now.” Lance told Hunk later when he woke up in the hospital.

“We can’t just drop everything and leave. Allura is on her way, by the way.” Hunk said. “I didn’t know who else to call when they asked for a guardian.”

“Damn it, there’s no time to waste my mom told me I needed to-”

“You spoke to her?” Hunk asked.

“Yes, I-”

“Thank you so very much.” He heard Allura say at the entrance to the room. “I can’t believe he got so far away.” She said before closing the door. “Lance.” She suddenly marched to the foot of his bed. “You’re lucky we have a ‘no asking questions’ policy or else I’d be flooding you with them right now.”

“Well, I mean, we aren’t physically at the orphanage…” Hunk trailed off when Lance shot him a glare.

“I’m ready to go.” Lance told Allura, starting to get out of bed. “I promise I’ll tell you if you take me out of here right now.”

“… Fine.” Allura sighed. “Let’s go.”

“Wait, you’re actually listening to him?” Hunk gawked. They ignored him as they began to leave the room. Hunk followed behind.

“We’re supposed to help you guys and if this helps him then so be it.” Allura replied bluntly.

“You were right, I should have gone to her.” Lance said to Hunk.

-

“Again, I’m sorry Pidge.” Shiro told Pidge when they returned to the orphanage.

“Can we just forget it? We can try again once you sort yourself out.” Pidge said.

“I better tell the investigator we can’t do it anymore…” Shiro lied down on the couch in his office.

“I’ll call him for you, just rest.” Pidge said, a little panicked.

“I should call the house, let Keith know that I’ll be home tomorrow.” Shiro sat up.

“He’s a big boy, he can handle himself I’m sure.”

“That’s exactly what he told me.” Shiro sighed.

“Like I said, just relax. And don’t say sorry, I should be the one saying it.” Pidge said before leaving the office. They quickly went outside and waited for the investigator to show up. Hopefully he doesn’t ask too many questions.

A car pulled up and Pidge stood still for a moment, unsure if it was the guy or not.

A tall man stepped out and headed to the staircase but stopped once he took a look at Pidge. “Ah, you must be Katie.” He said quietly. “Where’s Shiro?”

“He got sick, he said he’d join us in another hour or so.”

“Are you sure?” He asked, an unsure look on his face.

“Yes. Let’s go.” Pidge quickly went to the car.

“I have to tell him something important…”

“Tell me on the way there and then I can fill him in on the phone. Please, can we just go?” Pidge pleaded.

“I’m not too sure about this.” He shook his head. “I need to talk to Shiro, first.”

“No!” Pidge grabbed his arm and pulled him back. He looked down at them and before he could say anything, they pulled their glasses off and looked him right in the eyes. “You will take me straight there and fill me in. Then we will continue with the mission and wait for Shiro to catch up to us.”

“If you insist.” He pulled his arm away and went to the car. Pidge put their glasses back on quickly, a little shocked that they even had to result to that. No time to think about it much, now. There’s a mission they have to do.

-

“Congratulations, Shiro. You’ve been selected to participate in a once in a lifetime opportunity.” The headmaster had called Shiro in. Shiro was interning at the local science department. Here, they specialize in researching the “mutants.” Their job is to figure out what causes this and who gets it. Is it hereditary? Is it all by chance?

“A lifetime opportunity?” Shiro asked.

“Yes. We want you to participate in the genesis program.”

“What’s that? Sounds like something from Resident Evil.” Shiro shifted his chair, interested.

“We’ve figured out a way to make our own mutants.” The headmaster stood up. “We’re going to grant you the ability to become gifted. One of them.”

“Uh, how?” Shiro was less excited, now.

“We’ll show you.”

“I’m not really comfortable doing this, I didn’t get this job to be one I did it to find out makes one.” Shiro stood up. “I think I’ll take my leave.”

“I’m afraid not.”

“What?”

“Take him away.” The headmaster turned his back to him and two heavily armed guards came in, grabbing Shiro by the arm and dragging him away.

“Hey, you can’t do this!” Shiro shouted, trying to escape their grasp. “Let go of me! LET GO OF ME!”

-

Shiro shot up, panting and sweating profusely. “What time is it?” He asked himself, looking around frantically for his phone. He grabbed it and sighed at the time. Two in the morning. He might as well get home, now. Right before he could put his phone down, he saw a small alert that read ‘Two recycled messages.’ He had this special app installed in case anyone tried to use his phone without him knowing. He checked the alert and gasped at the messages. “Damn it!” He shot up and ran outside, looking frantically for his car. The place was about an hour from here, he could make it quick if he floored it. He jumped in his car and hit the gas hard, speeding down the street and to the freeway.

 _‘How could I have been so stupid?!’_ He thought. He just let them go! And why didn’t the investigator protest against it, he would have thought he’d at least have the decency to wait for him.

Wait, should he really be so urgent? What difference would it make with him there, anyway. He’d just have a breakdown and be useless. All he’d do is drag them down…

_‘No, don’t think like that. Just get to Pidge.’_

-

Keith opened his eyes and groaned, not because he was in pain but because he had no idea why he was even asleep in the first place. When he moved, he noticed his hands were tied behind his back. He was lying on the couch and he jolted up, catching a reflection of himself on the table. Blood covered the side of his face.

“One hour.” Daniel suddenly emerged from the kitchen. “It took one hour for the wound to heal itself.” He said this while looking at his stopwatch.

“What?” Keith said weakly, squinting his eyes in suspicion.

“Let me see.”

Keith flinched when Daniel grabbed hold of his face, inspecting the side of it.

“How disappointing. They’re so underdeveloped. You could be so much more.” He said.

_‘Get angry, come on, get angry, break free, do it, do it, just do it.’_

“What… What happened?” Keith asked, trying desperately to get his hands free.

“I was just seeing how far along you are.” Daniel said, moving away from him and sitting on the edge of the table.

“What are you talking about? I wanted you here to give me answers, not raise more fucking questions!” Keith growled.

Daniel stared at him for a few moments, smiling slightly. “We’re going to try something more severe.” He stood up and pulled a pistol with a silencer out.

“What? Stop, what the hell are you doing?!” Keith yelled, starting to get mad. Yes! He ripped his hands free but before he could do anything else, he was shot in the stomach. “W-Wh-” He gasped out, falling to the floor. Some blood seeped out the corner of his mouth and he stared at the ceiling in complete shock.

“Shh, I’m not going to kill you.” He heard Daniel say. He was kneeling beside him. Keith weakly tried to move away but Daniel stopped him. He began to dig his finger into the gunshot wound, feeling around for the bullet. Keith gasped loudly, trying to scream but instead blood gargled in his throat. “Good, I hit something vital.” Daniel suddenly flinched, pulling his finger away. “Woah. What was that? Did you just shock me?”

Keith just whimpered, trying to move away again.

“Let me try that again,” Daniel dug his finger in again and Keith whined, hoping to God or whatever else that was out there would magically let someone overhear and call the police. He spat blood at Daniel’s face before he finally blacked out from the pain.

Daniel calmly wiped the blood away and restarted his stopwatch.

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> overwatch comp keeps calling for me


	8. Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith suffers, Lance finds out more stuff about his past, Pidge learns the status of her family, and Keith suffers more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Violence. This story is mature, after all.

-

“Another hour. Does everything just take an hour?” Keith heard when he opened his eyes.

“I’m going to… kill you.” He muttered.

“Not even a minute and you’re already giving me empty threats.” Daniel said, putting his stopwatch away. He reached into another pocket, pulling yet another object out.

 _‘Your best option is to run out the door.’_ Keith thought. _‘Fighting him won’t do anything. He’s as strong as you. And if what he’s saying about healing is true then trying to hurt him won’t do anything either.’_

 _‘On the count of three, run to the door.’_ Keith looked to the side but was dismayed to find that they weren’t in the living room anymore. They were in his room. Damn, he must have been carried. His thoughts were interrupted when he felt a small prick on his shoulder.

“Don’t be alarmed, I’m just trying to see if you’re immune to drugs.” Daniel said. Keith shot up quickly once he heard that.

“Why are you doing this to me?” He asked, suddenly feeling heavy. He stumbled to the door. _‘Come on, just get to the front door!’_

“You’ll thank me when this is over.” Daniel said, catching him when he collapsed. He was breathing fast and sweating, his limbs feeling too heavy to move. He couldn’t do anything. “Guess you’re not immune. We’ll just see if this wears off faster.” He sighed, dragging Keith back to his bed.

“Let go.” Keith slurred, moving his head side to side. It was all he could do. Once he was set back down, Daniel turned and pulled _another_ object from his coat. How many fucking things does he have in there? He wanted to run once he saw that it was gardening shears.

“Just relax, you’re not going to die.” Daniel said as he approached him.

 _‘How the fuck am I supposed to relax?!’_ Keith wanted to scream, yell, run, he wanted to just do _something_ but he couldn’t. He could just lie down helplessly as the shears moved to his leg.

“I’m going to cut right beneath the knee.” Daniel pressed under his right knee.

“Dan... don’t…” Keith managed to say.

“Dan. Hm. I like that, call me Dan from now on.” Dan winked before stabbing the shears in and cutting the leg. He cut through the bone with ease, as if it was paper. Keith threw his head back and gasped loudly, since he couldn’t scream. Just small and weak groans slipped out. When the shears were removed, Dan observed the injury as Keith just whimpered and panted in unimaginable pain.

“Will you look at that?” Dan whistled. “It’s already almost healed.” He put the shears down. “So limbs regenerate rapidly yet gunshot wounds and head injuries take an hour.”

“Fuck y-” He stopped himself when he realized he could talk normally. That means the drug was wearing off. This is his chance, he can’t let Daniel know.

“I’ll be right back.” Dan turned and left the room. Keith carefully moved his hand, frustrated that his fingers only twitched.

 _‘Please for the love of God, wear off faster.’_ He pleaded in his mind. His hand moved but very slowly. He reached over and grabbed the sheers, gripping the handle as hard he could. He would stab Dan in the throat or whatever else that’s close and use that as his chance to run outside.

Once Dan returned, Keith immediately took his chance and stabbed him in the shoulder. Dan stumbled back and Keith ran out of his room, stumbling in the process. His legs were wobbly and recovering from the drug.

“Damn it, we don’t have time for this!” Keith yelled, he reached the stairs and tripped, rolling over and slamming his head repeatedly as he fell. When he landed, he groaned, his entire body feeling sore.

 _‘Get up. Get up, damn you!’_ He shakily pushed himself up but some force pressed him back down. Dan’s foot.

“I’m a little disappointed that all you could think of was stabbing me.” Dan said, his foot digging into Keith’s back. “When I left the room, I was hoping you’d come up with something better than a hit and run. In the process you also fell down the stairs and humiliated yourself.” He made a ‘Tsk’ sound.

“I should have shoved them up your ass.” Keith growled.

Dan didn’t respond to his comment and reached to pick him up but Keith bit his arm and wouldn’t let go. He bit down harder as Dan tried to pull away. “You could come up with so,” Dan punched his face. “Much,” He punched him even harder, causing his head to snap back and a chunk of his arm to come off with it. He hissed a bit in pain before standing up and stomping on Keith’s face for good measure. “Better.” He looked at his arm and watched it quickly heal the missing area. Keith spat out the piece he had in his mouth. Dan went to pick him up again, more cautiously this time, and went back upstairs.

Keith squirmed in his arms, trying to escape his grasp. Dan in response threw him down on the floor, roughly, knocking the wind out of him. He took that moment to get him to his room and back to his bed.

“Huh.” Dan suddenly said. Keith didn’t want to open his eyes. “You’re turning invisible again.”

-

“How are we supposed to get in? The door’s locked.” Hunk groaned when they arrived at Lance’s house.

“It’s my house, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t count as breaking in if I just picked the lock or something.” Lance replied, observing the front door.

“We could just break a window.” Allura suggested. “Someone’s going to see us and call the police out of suspicion.”

“I know, I know.” Lance felt around the doorframe, trying to see if he would find a key like in the movies.

“Hunk, hand me your jacket.” Allura said.

“You have your own jacket, though. You must be really cold.” Hunk removed it and handed it to her. She pressed it against the nearest window and used her elbow to smash it, the cloth muffling the noise and preventing the glass from stabbing into her.

“Get in.” She told Lance.

“Oh, alright.” Lance climbed inside the house and gasped when a piece of glass stabbed into his hand. He picked it out and sucked on the blood coming out as he began to venture further into the home. It was dark and dusty, just as he saw from the windows earlier. “Another dead end.” He sighed as he stepped into what he assumed would be the living room. He was shocked to see that it was lit up and full of furniture. There was also… people?

“Lance!” Two little kids jumped up and cheered when they saw him, running over to hug him.

“Oh Lance, it’s been so long since you’ve come to see us!” An old woman approached him.

“I’m sorry but… Who are you?” Lance didn’t return any of their hugs. He was beyond confused.

“How dare you forget your own family!” The old lady scolded him. She lightly slapped him. “It’s been so long, what happened to you my boy?”

“I just… What?”

_The house. The one with the family._

_‘My family’s huge. Like, really big!’_

It clicked in his head. Kind of.

“Wait, over half of the family I’ve been talking to my whole life was… Dead?” Lance gasped.

“Yes. You already knew this, why do you look so surprised?” The old lady asked.

“Something happened, I was in a crash or something and I woke up and I had, still have, no memory of anything.” Lance explained quickly.

“Well, to jog your memory a bit,” The old lady stepped back. “You always came here to visit. It was your outlet for when things got rough between your mother and your uncle.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m kind of starting to remember.” Lance felt overjoyed. He did used to come here all the time. His uncle was so angry about it, though. He and his mom fought about it all the time, one day they decided to drive to- An unbearable pain suddenly exploded in his head. It felt like his brain was stabbed or something. “OW!!!” He screamed, covering his head, hoping the pain would end soon.

“Oh, dear.” He heard this old lady, no his grandmother, say. “You’re protected.”

“Protected?” Lance asked through grit teeth.

“Somebody put a lock on your mind. To protect you. But who, I wonder…” His grandmother sighed.

“Mom?” Lance asked, feeling relieved at the pain dissolving.

“No, not her.” His grandmother then looked like she figured it out. “Oh darn, I can’t tell you.” She groaned. “The rules.”

“How the hell do I get this lock unlocked?” Lance asked. “It doesn’t help me at all.”

“There’s something that whoever did this to you doesn’t want you to know. Or remember.” His grandmother replied.

“I think I know what to do.” Lance said. “Thank you for your help.”

“Will you come back?” The two little kids asked.

“I’ll try.” Lance smiled before leaving. _Sorry mom, but I need to talk to my uncle after all._

“What happened?” Hunk asked once Lance climbed back out the window.

“We’re going to see my uncle.” Lance replied.

“Not now, we aren’t. It’s too late. We should get some rest, first.” Allura said.

“But I’m so close to figuring this out, I can almost taste it!” Lance whined.

“It’ll be much better once you’ve had a good rest. Let’s go.” She began to head to her car.

“Uh, who’s running the orphanage right now?” Hunk asked.

“Coran.” Allura replied.

“Oh, great. Everyone’s in good hands.” Hunk lied.

“I wonder what Keith’s up to.” Lance asked himself as they were driving back.

“Yeah, me too. And Pidge. I wonder where he went.” Hunk nodded. Lance was appalled that he asked out loud. 

“He and Shiro are on some top-secret mission.” Allura said, sarcastically.  

“Can we go visit Keith? He must be very lonely right now.” Hunk asked. Lance was hoping she’d say yes but there’s no way he’d admit it.

“No, we can do that in the morning.” Allura replied.

“Aw, man.” Hunk slumped in his chair.

-

“Stay close to me, the files of every patient and experiment that came and went here are in that room down the hall.” The investigator, who Pidge learned was Thace, told them as they snuck inside. The inside of the building was surprisingly clean and crisp for being a hell house.

“You’d think they would do more thorough background checks on their employees, huh?” Pidge muttered.

Thace was a double agent, he worked in the building while also secretly helping prisoners escape. He took Shiro’s case because he knew the man that helped Shiro escape. He was a good friend named Ulaz. He sadly died in a failed mission to rescue other people. One of those people being Matt Holt.

They both snuck to the end of the hall, leaning back against the wall and holding their breaths the entire time. Once inside the room, Thace locked the door with his key.

“We have to do this quick.”

“Don’t worry, I’m a computer whiz.” Pidge cracked their knuckles before they began typing away on the computer. It was in some language they’ve never seen before in their lives. _‘Don’t panic.’_ They typed the buttons you’d hit if it was an English computer, hoping it would work the same, but an alarm was set off instead.

“What did you do?” Thace quickly went up to them.

“I-I just didn’t recognize the software.” Pidge said.

“They’re going to come in, damn it.” Thace hit a few buttons and the language on the screen turned to English. The alarm was still going off, however. “I’ll hold them off if they break the door, you get the info you need.”

Pidge nodded and quickly began looking through files. There were tons and tons of names! A certain file named Takashi Shirogane caught their attention and they chose to print it. They then searched for their dad’s folder. Quickly glancing through, a specific word caught their attention and froze them in their tracks.

STATUS: DECEASED.

CAUSE: FAILED DRUG.

No way. They printed the folder, hoping that reading the whole thing would gain more insight. They then shakily typed up Matt’s name and almost didn’t want to read the results.

STATUS: UNKNOWN.

CAUSE: NO LONGER IN THIS FACILITY.

A breath of relief.

They hit print and quickly grabbed the files. “I’m ready.” They swallowed back a sob. What did they expect, anyway? It’s been three years.

“Great, brace yourself.” Thace said, opening the door. Three armed guards stood outside and Thace electrocuted one of them with some baton that he pulled from his back pocket. He twisted around quickly and electrocuted the second one before he could react. The third one managed to avoid the swing of the baton toward him and pulled his gun out, aiming it at Thace, causing him to freeze.

“Stay where you are!” The guard demanded.

Pidge knew exactly what to do. They threw their glasses off and ran in front of Thace. They then faced the guard and stared him in the eye. 

“Put your hands up!” The guard demanded.

“No. You’re going to turn that gun on yourself and pull the trigger.” Pidge said. The guard, without hesitation, put the gun to his head and shot himself.

“Pidge, fucking Christ, you could have just told him to let us go or something!” Thace gripped their arm.

“This man is among the ones who killed my father!” Pidge pulled away.

“Doing this just makes you as bad as them!” Thace hissed. Suddenly there was the sound of another gunshot and Thace gasped, collapsing to the floor. Blood was pouring rapidly from his back and a puddle began to surround him on the floor.

“NO!” Pidge screeched, looking to see who shot. Before they could use their mind control, however, the new guard had already pulled the trigger again. The bullet didn’t hit Pidge, however, it was legit frozen in place right in front of their face.

“What the fuck?” The guard gasped. The bullet then turned around and flew at him, hitting him right in the face.

“Woah, I never knew I could do that!” Pidge gasped, looking down at the body.

“You can’t.” Someone said. They looked up and saw Shiro standing right there, a robotic arm out and glowing bright purple.

“I-I’m sorry.” Pidge said.

“There’s no time for that.” Shiro said, walking over to Thace. “Come on, we have to get him out of here.”

“No, you just said there’s no time. Leave me here so the other guards think it was just me.” Thace protested.

“But-”

“No buts. Get out of here. I served my purpose. I hope you find your family, kid.” Thace smiled at Pidge. Pidge just stood there in shock. This man really sacrificed his life for someone he just met. Shiro dragging them out of there interrupted their thoughts. When they were finally out of the building and into safety, Pidge blinked away tears they didn’t realize they were shedding.

“I hope you found what you were looking for.” Shiro said bitterly.

“I did.” Pidge’s voice cracked. “My dad is dead.”

Shiro didn’t say anything.

“I was so upset that I… I killed someone.” They sniffled.

“Pidge…”

“Let’s just… get back. I need to read these files and figure out where Matt could be.” Pidge went inside the car.

They drove back to the orphanage in silence.

-

“Allura, you really left Coran here all by himself to take care an entire orphanage of kids?” Allura was greeted by Zarkon, the bane to her entire existence.

“Why the hell are you here? What did I tell you about coming here again?” She hissed. Hunk and Lance nudged each other behind her, hoping for a fight.

“You know I could get you in trouble for this.”

“What happens here is none of your damn business!” Allura yelled.

“It is my business. I own part of this orphanage, I have every right to be here.”

“You never cared enough to actually do anything for this place, why are you suddenly showing your face?”

“Same reason as you. I just want to help the kids.” Zarkon smiled.

“Hunk, Lance. Get inside.” Allura instructed.

“Yes, ma’am.” Hunk said, dragging Lance with him inside.

“Why don’t you want to accept my offer? Do you have any idea how much it would benefit you?”

“Exploiting children who come to us for help would hold no benefit for me.” Allura snapped. “Now, you have ten seconds to leave the property or I _will_ call the police.”

“And tell them what?” Zarkon smirked. “That a man who owns as much of this place as you do had come to admire the work being done?”

Allura just stared coldly at him.

“If looks could kill…” Zarkon said. “You could end it all right now. You know you can.”

“I’m not like you.” Allura shook her head.

“You were given a blessing. The touch of life, the power to give and to take it. Why don’t you use it?”

“You know why.” Allura turned and went inside, slamming the door shut behind her.

Zarkon sighed. “I will return.” He declared before leaving.

-

“Pidge!” Hunk gasped happily when their friend had come into the room later that night. “What have you been up to?” He asked.

Pidge just stared at him. Their eyes were full of nothing but despair.

“Pidge, you okay?” Lance asked.

“No.” Pidge shook their head.

“What is it?” Hunk stood up. “We’re your friends, you can tell us anything.”

“I killed someone.” Pidge cried. “I made them just put the gun to their head and pull the trigger, just like that.”

Hunk and Lance were quiet.

“I was just so angry and hurt. My dad is dead because of them. I know it wasn’t specifically him but I just wanted to feel a little better. It did the exact opposite.” Pidge couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. “I’ve been hiding so much from you guys. I never even considered you friends. And I won’t blame you if you decide to never speak to me again.”

“Pidge, you never owed us the truth. You never had to tell us.” Hunk said, cautiously reaching his arms out. “You were going through some things, we all were. I understand completely where you’re coming from.” He smiled.

“Y-You’re lying.”

“No, he’s right. I understand, too. We’re still going to be there for you because we’re friends. We’re like the three musketeers, y’know?” Lance spoke up, getting in on the action.

“And you don’t have to tell us the complete story yet. Do it when you’re ready. You’ve obviously had a long night.” Hunk gently hugged them. Pidge didn’t pull away. Lance took that as his cue to join in.

“Thank you, guys.” Pidge whimpered.

“All we’re missing is Keith.” Hunk said after they all stayed in their group hug for five solid minutes.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Lance said a little too enthusiastically. “Then we’d be totally complete.” He added. “I wonder what he’s doing, now.”

“He’s probably asleep, like a normal person would be.” Hunk joked.

-

Keith screamed when Dan stabbed the shears into his shoulder. Or, he at least tried to. He was under the effects of the paralyzing drug again.

“It’s so funny how you’re invisible yet your clothes give you away. It just makes it so useless.” Dan laughed as he twisted the shears. He pulled them out and then sighed, admiring the work. “I’m going to take a break and wash my hands. When I return, I expect you to surprise me.” He winked before leaving the room.

Keith turned and rolled off the bed, hissing at his hurt shoulder. He discovered that really fatal or serious wounds take about an hour to heal while simple puncture wounds or cuts heal almost immediately. This shoulder wound should be fine in about ten more seconds.

He had to come up with something quick, something clever. It was obvious that running outside is no longer an option, either. You can’t kill someone who can heal as rapidly as that. But you can make it so that they can’t regenerate. But how?

He heard footsteps heading to his room and he quickly stood up. First things first, he had to make it so Dan can’t see him at all. This was a humiliating plan but it should buy him some more time. He quickly removed all his clothes so that he was completely naked, thus making himself completely invisible. He quickly shoved his clothes into a nearby drawer.

“Oh, clever.” Dan whistled when he walked back inside. “Congratulations, you did it. You impressed me. But not good enough. When I find you, it’s game over.” He made a slicing motion at his neck.

That’s it!

You slice off the head. That’s how you stop someone from regenerating.

Duh, he’s seen Deadpool.

But with what? Keith thought. _With what? My bare hands?_

Nah, that’s a little too morbid.

Shiro’s axe should do the trick.

Finally, he had a solid plan. Sneak to the kitchen, grab the axe, then chop off his head.

-


	9. Absolutely Horrifying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith fights a bloody battle. Shiro is very frustrated. Lance sees his uncle for about ten seconds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: A lot of violence. Very vague mentions of rape.

-

“Allura, some weird guy says he wants to talk to you?” Shiro knocked on her door, a confused look on his face.

“Um, bring him in?” Allura looked up from where she was working.

A rather beautiful looking man with long white hair stepped inside and posed dramatically.

“Can I help you?” Allura asked, raising a brow.

“You don’t recognize your own cousin?” The man gasped.

“Huh?”

“It’s me, Lotor!” The man put his hands on his hips. “We are supposed to be married to keep the ‘touch of life’ bloodline pure!” He scoffed.

“I’m calling the police.” Allura picked up the phone.

“No!” Lotor jumped forward and snatched the phone, breaking it on his knee. “Look, I didn’t mean to alarm you, but I’m here for your hand in marriage.”

“I never even knew I had a cousin and now that I do he just wants to marry me. How repulsive.” Allura cringed.

“Please, Allura, just think about it.”

“Hey, that’s my woman!” Lance suddenly came in.

“How did you know about this?” Allura gasped.

“Keith overheard it.” Lance said. “Back off, she is mine.”

“My, my, what do we have here?” Lotor bowed before him. He gently took his hand and kissed it.

“I’m sixteen, weirdo.” Lance pulled his hand away in disgust.

“Age is but a number.”

“That’s it, I’m breaking the rule. I’m making an exception.” Allura stood up and touched Lotor, making him drop dead. “You say nothing to no one.” She hissed to a horrified Lance.

-

APRIL FOOLS OBVIOUSLY HERE IS THE REAL CHAPTER

-

“I assume this means you’re naked. And you have a plan. Going outside like that obviously wouldn’t bode well for you. What’s the plan, I wonder?” Dan said. “It’s kinda funny, it’s like I’m talking to myself. If it wasn’t for the sound of the drawer I would have thought you were gone, actually.”

Keith didn’t say anything, he just cautiously tried to tip-toe past him.

Dan stepped back and stood at the doorway. “I’ll wait.”

Keith had to bite his lip to prevent himself from saying “Damn it” out loud. He looked around and tried to think of another alternative. He has the obvious upper hand right now, he should use it. He could try and fight him until there’s an opening, take that chance to get to the kitchen. Nah, not in this state. Now or never. He turned to one of the nightstands and quickly picked it up, throwing it at Dan without a second thought. It shattered to pieces when it came in contact with him, taking him completely by surprise and knocking him over.

Keith ran right out of the room, gasping when a hand managed to grab his ankle. He fell forward and landed on his chin, biting his tongue. “How?!” He yelled in shock.

“My plan is working.” Dan laughed. Keith was grossed out by how his entire face was just covered in splinters. It was disgusting and legit hurt to look at. “You’re still invisible and I can feel that you’re not trembling in fear.” He began to pull him toward him. Keith rolled over and kicked him in the face, snapping his head back. Breaking his neck? Who cares, he let go. Keith jumped back up and ran straight downstairs to the kitchen. He tried to remember where the ax was placed.

 _‘Damn it, Shiro!’_ He thought when he remembered that it was placed on the highest shelf. Curse his shortness! He grabbed a chair, dragging it to the counter and using it as a stool, quickly grabbing the ax and jumping down. He went upstairs and froze when Dan was nowhere in sight.

_‘Don’t fucking tell me he can turn invisible, too.’_

He cautiously looked around, hoping that nobody would jump out. The ax was also giving his location away now, this is going to have to be a hit or miss. Suddenly he felt a kick to his back, making him stumble forward but he regained his posture quickly. He turned around, swinging the ax and feeling satisfied when it connected with Dan’s upper arm. He ripped it out and swung toward his stomach this time, feeling grateful that it hit its mark this time, too.

Dan fell on his back, trying to heal himself quickly but it was too late. Keith had already moved to stand beside him and he pressed his foot against the stomach wound. He lifted the ax.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you.” Keith swung it down but Dan surprisingly caught it with his hand. The hand was sliced halfway through and bleeding but the grip did not budge. Keith’s eyes widened because he could not pull it away.

“Don’t you want to be like this? Unstoppable?” Dan suddenly said, snatching the ax right from his hands and throwing it aside. It slid under the dresser. “Listen to me, for the last time, I’m only helping you.” He managed to grip Keith’s ankle again.

“Not this shit again! I don’t care what you’re trying to do!” Keith tried to pull it away, desperately looking around for another weapon.

“God screwed up when he made us. He gave us the gene everyone wishes they had. The mutant gene that blesses us with every power imaginable. You just need to learn to use it.”

Keith thought of at least two powers he was sure he didn’t have. “Fuck off, I don’t care, leave me the hell alone!” He tried to grab another nightstand.

“I’m telling you, this is for your own good.” Daniel yanked his foot out, making him fall on his back. He then quickly moved to keep the boy pinned down, feeling around for his throat. “I don’t want to do this, you don’t want me to do this.”

“G-Get-” Two hands gripped Keith’s throat tight and prevented him from finishing his sentence.

“Oh, the things I’m going to have to do now.” Dan sighed. He used one hand to keep choking and the other hand formed into a fist. He lifted it up, bringing it down, slamming it onto his nose as hard as he could. It wasn’t exactly a punch since he used the side of his fist but it hurt like a bitch nonetheless. He proceeded to do it two more times. Keith could clearly feel blood coming out of whatever part of his face, he couldn’t even feel it. He did not want to think of what else was in store if he gave in to this oncoming unconsciousness but it was so hard to stay awake at this point.

 Dan chuckled, now digging his finger into Keith’s right eye. The boy screeched breathlessly, losing the last of his air. “I’ll give you a hint of what I’m going to do now, though.” He moved his finger around, making Keith use his hand to try and pull it off. Dan yanked his finger out and grabbed the hand, crushing it. “I can feel your body move, you know.” He released the hand. “As for my hint,” He leaned down and pressed his lips against his ear. “Taking your clothes off makes the next step come easier.” Dan laughed dryly, pulling away.

This is it, he was going to give in to the blackness. As a last resort, Keith stuck his good hand out and tried to reach for the ax under the dresser. It was too far. The one eye he could see through was starting to only see white.

“You take so much longer to knock out than a regular human, see? You should be thrilled.” He heard Dan say but it sounded muffled. He was literally on the brink of passing out. Why couldn’t it just come so he could sleep. Wouldn’t the pain just go away? Oh right, he’ll be completely and utterly fucked. Literally.

He very slowly, very shakily, lifted his good hand, placing it gently on Dan’s cheek. “Hm?” He heard. He then let his hand slide off, going completely limp.

“About time.” Dan released his throat. He then ran his hands down his chest and Keith’s one good eye shot back open. He quickly used both his hands to grab his throat and just dig his fingers inside, ripping it open. He ignored the pain in his messed up hand, it was mostly healed anyway save for a few still crushed fingers. The adrenaline was taking over, now. He ripped something out, he wasn’t sure what it was but he _was_ sure that it was something vital. Dan made a sickening gurgle noise, getting off of him, and gripping the shredded remains of whatever was left of his throat.

Keith rolled over and pushed the dresser aside, making it fly and crash against the wall. Yep, Shiro was definitely going to be pissed. But he didn’t care at this point. His entire body hurt to move but he pushed through, grabbing the ax. He then turned to where Dan was standing up by his bed, throat starting to heal.

Keith sat up, still shaking from the pain, and threw the ax at Dan as hard as he could. He hit him right in the face. Dan was out completely now, body collapsing onto the floor. Keith very slowly and painfully picked himself up, walking over to where his attacker lied. He yanked the ax out and swung it down onto his destroyed neck, chopping the head clean off. He then kicked it away from the body and collapsed, breathing in relief. It was over now. “Told ya… I wouldn’t kill ya…” He forced out.

What had just happened really began to sink in. _‘Hey, at least you can control everything now, right?’_ He could have sworn he heard Dan say. He looked to his bloodied hands, still visibly shaking. He saw that he was also no longer invisible.

“I should probably… shower.” He mumbled, standing up and stepping out of his room. Once he got to the hall he saw the destroyed nightstand and collapsed again, this time in tears.

 _‘It’s over, now. You’re okay.’_ He thought.

Why didn’t he feel okay?

-

“Zarkon’s really bothering you, huh?” Shiro asked Allura. She was pacing angrily in his office.

“Why the hell is he trying to come back now? There must be something.” She said.

“Maybe there’s some special moon effect that happens once every ten years that increases mutant activity.” Shiro shrugged.

“Why are you being so sarcastic?” Allura snapped.

“Not really in a good mood, myself.” Shiro sighed. “I think I’m going home.” He stood up. “Look, Coran’s got your back and I’m sure the kids here would also help you should Zarkon try anything.”

“I mean, I guess. But it shouldn’t have to come to that.” She said.

“You’re right. But that’s life, tough decisions sometimes have to be made.” Shiro headed to his door. “Lock my office behind you when you leave. I’m so tired.” He left.

Allura sighed. He was right, a tough decision is necessary sometimes.

-

Shiro unlocked the door to his apartment and was surprised to see it slowly open on its own. He stepped inside cautiously and was horrified to see blood on the floor. “Keith?” He called out. “Keith?!” He yelled out, checking the kitchen. One of the cabinets were open and his ax was missing. He quickly went upstairs and raised a brow at some destroyed dresser in the hall. He stepped into Keith’s room and was absolutely mortified at what he saw. Another destroyed dresser!

There was also a LOT of blood on the floor.

“KEITH!!!” Shiro yelled.

“Shiro?” He heard Keith gasp. He turned and saw the boy standing in the hallway, drying his hair with a towel. He also wore a shirt drenched in blood, a hole in the middle of it, and jeans with half of one of the pant sleeves missing. One of his eyes were bloodshot red. “You weren’t supposed to be here until…” He trailed off when he inspected his room. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no…” He muttered repeatedly. “Where did it go? There’s no way!” He gasped.

“Keith, can you tell me what-”

“Th-the body, did you see a body?” Keith looked panicked. “W-Where did it go? There’s no way, there’s no god damn WAY! I should have put the head downstairs or something!”

“Body?! _HEAD?!_ ”

“Shiro, this guy, that stranger, he broke in and he attacked me and he was spouting some nonsense about genes and then he was going to… to…” Keith couldn’t bring himself to say the next word. He just sighed. “I cut his head off. To prevent him from healing himself. Yet, there is no body here.” He looked like he was about to throw up.

“I knew I should have insisted you go to the orphanage, I just _knew_ it!” Shiro slapped himself on the head. “How could I have just let you be here alone?”

“We don’t have time to worry about that, we need to figure out where the hell the body went!” Keith threw his towel on the bed and began to look around.

“Shouldn’t you put some better clothes on?” Shiro asked, extremely worried as he watched the kid look around in a panic.

“I just, this was the first thing I grabbed from the drawer.” Keith replied. “I can’t believe this.” He gulped. “We have to…”

“Keith, there’s nothing we can do.” Shiro still kinda had no clue what was going on. “But for sure, it’s not safe to be here. We have to go stay somewhere else.”

“But your apartment.” Keith whimpered.

“Forget it. Come on.” Shiro began to leave his room. “Grab some clothes, we’re just going to stay at a hotel.” He was so tired.

“Okay.” Keith sighed.

Once things were gathered, they went to Shiro’s car and he began to drive to the nearest hotel.

“Should we really get a hotel this close?” He asked. “Can we just go to the next one? To be safe?”

“Alright.” Shiro drove to the next one and rented a room for a couple nights. Once they stepped into the hotel room, he collapsed on the bed and instantly fell asleep. He woke up to find Keith just sitting on the chair by the bed, staring at the wall. “What time is it?” He asked.

“Eight.” Keith replied.

“When did you wake up?”

“I didn’t.”

“Keith, you should sleep.” Shiro sat up.

“I can’t, Shiro. He’s still out there.” Keith protested.

“I’ll keep watch, alright?” Shiro scooched over and put a hand on his shoulder. “You have nothing to worry about.”

“I’ll try.” Keith sighed. He stood up and moved to the bed, slowly laying down and then staring straight ahead.

“You close your eyes to sleep.” Shiro joked.

-

“It says that Matt escaped but when I did research prior to this, there’s no record of that.” Pidge said, reading her file.

“You mean, no _public_ record of it.” Hunk corrected her.

“That just leaves you at another dead end, I’m afraid.” Lance sighed.

“I know.” Pidge groaned.

“Well now that we discussed that, it’s time to go to Lance’s uncle.” Hunk said.

“Thanks, guys.” Lance stood up from where they were sitting in a circle, observing Matt’s folder.

“Hey, what’s this third folder?” Hunk suddenly asked.

“Oh, that’s nothing.” Pidge gathered all of them and slid them under her bed quickly.

“Hm.” Hunk looked at her seriously. “Why do you feel the need to hide that? Not like he’s here.”

Pidge looked at him in surprise. “You know, after we all talked about our feelings or whatever, you didn’t talk about yours.”

“He’s right.” Lance nodded.

“She.” Hunk reminded him.

“Who cares?!” Pidge interrupted them.

“Look, I want to tell you guys, but it’s just not the right time.” Hunk looked down, a look of shame on his face.

Pidge and Lance just looked at each other like ‘Yeah, sure.’

“Guys, trust me.” Hunk looked back at them.

“Fine.” Pidge rolled her eyes.

“So, Lance’s uncle…”

-

“Allura, you can heal things right?” Shiro came into her office later that day.

Allura just looked at him. “Are you really asking me that?”

 “It’s been a really long night, okay?” Shiro sighed. “Come on,” He said to someone outside the door. “There’s this one thing that won’t heal itself and I was wondering if you could.” He explained as Keith stepped in. His right eye was bloodshot red.

“What happened to it?” Allura gasped, walking up to him and gently cupping his face.

“I fell on it.” Keith lied.

“That’s biggest pile of sh- trash I’ve ever heard.” Allura replied. Then she looked at Shiro suspiciously.

“Allura, I would never. He was attacked and his eye was caught in the attack.” He defended himself.

“I know. I just knew that if I looked at you like that I’d get the truth. I’m sick of being in the dark about things, I run this place too.”

“Well, I know. You have problems of your own, I didn’t want to bother you with these.”

“I literally started this place just so I _can_ be bothered with those.” Allura glared. She looked back at Keith. She gently ran her finger over his now closed eye. “I’m not sure if this can heal. It’s like there’s something in it.”

“Get it out then.” Keith said.

“We don’t know for sure, I was just giving a suggestion.”

Keith sighed.

“Who attacked you?”

“Some creep named Daniel. Honestly, I don’t even remember half the shit he said. I just know he was insane and he’s still out there.” Keith backed away from her.

“You should stay here again until that’s solved.” Allura said. “What did he look like?” She asked. “I need to know so I can get an idea on who to look out for.”

“I’m going to call a sketch artist in.” Shiro told her.

“Good. And you better not leave me out of this, I’m sick of doing nothing while these kids suffer. Thanks to you, they forget they can come to me, too.” She scolded him.

“I’m just, gonna leave now,” Keith slowly backed out of the office.

“I’m pretty sure if I knew about that, I wouldn’t have left him alone.” Allura crossed her arms. Shiro had just explained the story of the stranger to her.

“Yes, I know, so many things were going on at once it was so overwhelming.” Shiro put his head in his hands. “I feel so terrible. Keith won’t tell me exactly what that guy did to him but I can guess it was horrible by the way he’s acting now. He can’t even sleep.”

Allura softened up. “We’ll do our best to help him. I think the best thing we can do for him right now is make sure that guy is found.”

-

Keith walked into the room he knew Lance, Pidge, and Hunk stayed in, hoping to at least be distracted for now. He was disappointed to find the room empty. Where did they even go? He went over to the closest bed, Lance’s, and lied down in it. Only because it was the closest, not because it was Lance’s. That would be weird. He kept staring at the other bed, slowly drifting off. Yes, sleep would be nice. Very nice.

He opened his eyes quickly and was upset to see it was nighttime. Damn, he slept the whole day? The others still weren’t back, either. He stepped out into the hall and was confused to see it was dark. He went down the hall but was frustrated when it felt like the hall was never going to end.

“Hello, Keith.” He heard a familiar voice say. He whipped around and was horrified to see Daniel standing at the other end of the hall. “Aren’t you happy I was able to help you control your power? You should be thanking me.” He said.

_‘This must be a dream. It’s just a dream.’_

“If it were a dream, would I be able to do this?” Daniel suddenly appeared in front of him and stabbed him in the stomach. Keith gasped, feeling the pain. “You can’t escape me. You have to thank me. I’d like a thanks for making you as powerful as me.”

Keith pushed him away then slipped, the ground beneath him disappearing completely. He was falling into a never-ending abyss, now. 

He opened his eyes again, finding himself on the floor and feeling some object under his stomach. He rolled over to see that it was his knife. Must have slid out of his pocket…

He slapped himself.

“Why didn’t I use this?!” He asked out loud. Then he remembered he wasn’t wearing this jacket. He was such an idiot. If he was smart, he wouldn’t have stayed home alone. Home? Was it even his home? It was just some place he stayed at until he could control himself. Now he could. He also ruined it for Shiro. Everywhere he goes he just ruins everything. Why does he even bother?

-

“I’m really nervous.” Lance mumbled. “My mom was so adamant on me not going to see him, I can’t imagine why.”

“I’m amazed you know his address.” Pidge said to Hunk.

“What? Look,” He pointed to the door. “Nice pattern.”

“I don’t want any girl scout cookies.” They heard some man yell from behind the door when they knocked. Lance knocked again. The door swung open and his uncle looked at him in horror.

“The fuck are you doing here?” He asked.

“I…” Lance stopped, looking at his uncle made him remember something.

_‘There can only be one, kid.’_

He remembers hearing his uncle say that. The car crash wasn’t an accident.

“Hello? Lance?” Hunk said.

“You can-” Before Lance could finish, his head exploded with unbearable pain all over again. He blacked out.

“What did you do to him?” Hunk asked his uncle.

“I didn’t do shit, you saw that. He was just staring at me and then he passed out. I don’t know anything.” He slammed the door shut.

“W-What?” Lance mumbled, waking up.

“What happened to you?” Hunk asked.

“My worthless and pointless protection. Whatever the hell it is.” Lance groaned. “Let’s just go back.” He stood up.

“Are you sure?” Pidge asked.

“I’m sure.” Lance sighed. He didn’t feel like passing out again. Once they entered the orphanage, they were greeted by Shay.

“There you are, Allura has been searching for you.” Shay said.

“Why?” Lance scratched the back of his head. “Maybe…” He felt hope.

“Come, this way.” Shay led him to her office.

“We’ll wait here!” Hunk called out after them.

He entered the office, seeing some weird woman standing by Allura. The woman’s back was to him.

“There you are.” Allura looked at him. The woman turned around and Lance was shocked to see that it was his sister.

“Lance…” She gasped. She ran to him and pulled him into a tight hug. “I couldn’t leave you. I’m so sorry for not being there for you.” She cried. Lance was still in too much shock to hug her back or even say anything.

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd say this story has about 5 chapters left at the most. Maybe 6.

**Author's Note:**

> No more outdated meme.


End file.
